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November 2017 • Vol 27 No 11 • www.racecar-engineering.com • UK £5.95 • US $14.50

NASCAR Xfinity Series

The inside story of the Indy aero tweaks

9 770961 109104

The Baja 1000 Force India F1

Formula 2 2018
Improving safety in the Up close and personal Full technical analysis
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 CONTENTS – NOVEMBER 2017 – Volume 27 Number 11

COVER STORY TECHNICAL

8 Stock car aerodynamics 55 The Consultant
How NASCAR R&D transformed a potentially dull Indy Xfinity Mark Ortiz talks torque wedge and caster jacking
counter into an epic race with some clever aero tweaks 58 Slip Angle
Grip, balance, control and stability with OptimumG
COLUMNS 63 Aerobytes
5 Ricardo Divila The final part in or DJ Firestorm aero study
The need for a little sanity in road car design 67 Motorsport brakes
7 Mike Blanchet Latest trends in retardation technology
Our man rescues his broken laptop from the road 73 Technology transfer
and illustrates the need for focus How Ricardo has taken race tech to the roads
80 Danny Nowlan
FEATURES A damper tuning master-class
16 Force India VJM10 87 Technical discussion
The car that’s punching above its weight in F1 Can the ACO’s new rules package save LMP1?
24 Dallara F2/18
New-for-2018 Formula 2 racer breaks cover BUSINESS & PEOPLE
32 IndyCar 2018
The tech detail beneath that stylish UAK18 bodykit 88 Business people
BTCC boss Alan Gow talks TCR and hybrids
42 Hyundai WRC engine
Under the bonnet of the i20 World Rally Car 92 News update
F3 to go single-make, plus new cars spotted
46 Baja 1000 focus
One man’s crusade for safer desert racing 94 ASI Preview
The countdown to January’s show continues
96 Products
Shiny new kit for pit and paddock
98 Bump Stop

Kicking up dust in the desert. The Baja

1000 celebrates its golden anniversary
this year and it should be a lot safer than
in the past. Turn to page 46 to find out why

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NOVEMBER 2017 www.racecar-engineering.com 3

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STRAIGHT TALK – RICARDO DIVILA
Hyper inflation
Are the makers of mega-money hypercars too fixated on those really big numbers?
R
egular as clockwork, manufacturers come
up with another supercar, some just show
cars to pump up the image, but some as
production cars. Some of those actually jump into
another group, the hypercars, like the 1479bhp at
6700rpm, peak torque 1600Nm, from 2000rpm all
the way to 6000rpm, Bugatti Chiron, with a limited
top speed of 261mph, and a projected production
run of 100 cars. Apart from the performance figures,
it also ticks the really essential big number: $3.38m.
A well know syndrome in teenage boys is the
word-exempt conversation they tend to indulge in,
with a sprinkling of numbers and of course letters,
exemplified in this sample: ‘Ah, the 3000YZ 3-litre
triple-turbo; zero to a 100 in 3.5 seconds, DOHC
desmodromic cams, 500bhp, paddleshift, rheostatic
dampers, active differential beast.’
To be answered with: ‘The 114 W16 can
beat it easily, 600bhp DIN double manifold
flux-capacitor with nuclear mega tonnage
capability and a state of the art air conditioner,
capable of 48,000 BTUs of heat extraction. And
holographic mirrors. Can’t beat those.’
Figures of speech
These conversations do not only involve cars,
they also apply to stereo equipment, planes
and of course, weapons. I am not immune
to this either, but at least it is part of the
job description. But sanity should return to
the populace at large and principally to the
motoring press, who act as porn merchants to The Bugatti Chiron costs $3.38m, yet a 300kg 0.4-litre car could
this syndrome. It is time to acknowledge that be a more attractive solution. And Gordon Murray drives a Smart
this sort of performance is not really usable
anywhere, save dedicated high-speed test ovals.
One company car I used was a Lamborghini
Diablo. It had more blind spots than Stevie Wonder,
a clunky gearbox, pedals that required truck driver
muscles, an air conditioner that couldn’t cope with
the half-acre of glass so you would fry in summer,
while it was impossible to pay Autostrada tolls
without opening the door and getting out.
So why do they exist? Well, we can class them in
the jewellery category, like watches, where you can
find examples like the Graff Diamonds Hallucination
at $55m; the Breguet Marie-Antoinette Grande
Complication Pocket Watch at $30m; or the Richard
Mille RM 56-02 Sapphire Tourbillon at a mere $2m.
The high price tag is the reason to buy it.
But engineering is not supposed to be a
wallet advertiser, and we can tell the time on our
smartphone these days. And considering that what
used to be the open road is now a hunting ground
Improving the breed does not mean more horsepower or more speed
for radars to increment the state revenue, call it
indirect taxation, the concept of a car that can go
over 200mph is frankly ridiculous, and not many
hypercar buyers even regularly take them to a track
day to exploit even part of their performance.
Engineers can be forgiven for these cars,
perhaps, as part of their motivation is to improve
the breed. But it is time to admit that improving the
breed does not mean more horsepower or more
speed, but rather more efficiency, more usefulness,
and better energy consumption?
That there will be a market for a couple of
thousand supercars or hypercars is clear, given the
world’s fleet of approximately 1.3bn cars, but it does
not need the slavish hyping of it by the motoring
press. And this applies also to more mundane cars.
Why would you need an 8-speed 600bhp 4WD
Audi RS6 station wagon? Considering that it will
spend most of its life trundling around small towns
or cities, or at best in the suburbs on the school
run, it does smell a bit of overkill. It’s a nice car, yes, is acceptable, and what the car is to be used for,
but not really pertinent to real life. But it is a mega
car to drop into a conversation in a pub, or for
getting one-up on your neighbour.
Handy Murray
Probably the premier designer of my generation,
Gordon Murray, has said: ‘I’ve driven a Smart car
for the last 13 years.’ After designing F1 cars that
won the world championship, producing the
McLaren F1 supercar that won Le Mans at its first
attempt, we can assume he knows cars, be it for the
road or race track, and he loves driving and all that
goes with it. So he’s worth listening to.
And where is Gordon Murray now? Well, if you
are in the business, you should know he is still
very active indeed, be it with designing town cars,
or creating manufacturing methods to be more
reactive, downsized and ecological.
I have ranted on for years about the incongruity
of using a two-metre wide, four-metre long, ton-and
a-quarter of metal object to transport 80kg of me
around. For more than ample performance this will
have to have something in the region of 300bhp,
giving a power to weight ratio of 5kg per HP.
Hyper-active
Let us take a small run down memory lane. What
is accepted as the first car was the Benz Patent
Motorwagen of 1886, with a 560W (0.75hp) 954cc
engine and an empty weight of 265kg, giving a
power to weight ratio of 353.3kg/hp. It could easily
be outperformed by a horse.
Okay, as we progressed we then went from a
1908 Ford Model T 2.9-litre flex-fuel, at 27kg/hp, to
today’s base saloon of around 150hp with a
power to weight ratio of 8.8kg/hp.
The high-performance car could be
exemplified in 1984 by the Ferrari Testarossa,
with 390bhp and P/W ratio of 3.86kg/hp,
or in 2007 with a Porsche 911GT2 with
523bhp and 2.75kg/hp. Today’s La Ferrari
with 950bhp clocks in at a P/W of 1.66kg/hp,
just slightly worse than a 1936 Supermarine
Spitfire with a P/W ratio of 1.57. We will have
to go a bit further to reach the highs of a
Boeing 747 (0.548kg/hp), but we’re not too
far away from the first of Audi’s diesel Le
Mans winners, the 2006 R10 TDI at 1.43.
But what we need is a measure of usable
performance, and as such we need to parse
in the other factors, such as what speed we really
need to go, what fuel consumption and pollution
plus what it will cost to scrap and maintain. We
do not need a bling advertiser and bird puller,
women are much more sensible than that.
We can build sane cars easily. It will weigh more
than a bare bones early 20th century cycle car, but
given the materials we have now, putatively 50 per
cent efficient ICE engines, one can design and build
a 300kg carbon aluminium 0.4-litre engine 100bhp
car that will outperform all the iconic sportcars
we had drooled over in our teens (or later for the
incurably car-struck) and reduce pollution, use less
space and accelerate very quickly.
The sole drawback is having to share the
road with Ms Doe taking the kids to school in the
3-tonne, 9ft high Toyota Tyrannosaurus SUV. I do
love cars, honest, guv, but some sanity please.
NOVEMBER 2017 www.racecar-engineering.com 5
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SIDETRACK – MIKE BLANCHET
Fatal distraction
In the rush to diversify have some F1 teams lost sight of what really matters?
C
ommitment in motor racing is generally
identified with a driver’s determination to
keep hard on the throttle into fast and risky
corners where the consequences of misjudgment
are likely to be severe. But there are other forms
of commitment that play a massive part in our
complex business and sport.
Liberty F1’s Sean Bratches recently stated that
it is committing to street races for the additional
grands prix it wishes to establish. One can see the
marketing logic, and there is a place for such events
in F1, as has always been the case. Monaco has
been a sine qua non of the world championship
since its inception; Singapore has presented a
real challenge over the past decade. Nonetheless,
should the ratio of street to purpose-built tracks
begin to approach half, there is a real risk of
Formula 1 losing its core identity.
No ‘round-the-houses’ (or should this be
‘round-the-skyscrapers’?) circuit can ever equal
the majesty of Spa or Suzuka, where cars
and drivers can stretch their proverbial
legs and exercise the full extent of their
capabilities, and spectators can view
more than just one corner. If Liberty sticks
to its promise of protecting the traditional
venues, all well and good, and we will
have to accept the necessity of more
street races to maintain the health of
grand prix racing. What bothers me and,
I‘m sure, many others who love the sport,
would be for Formula 1 to gradually
become a grown-up version of Formula E,
focused on city centres, even if, praise be,
XPB
it retains the internal combustion engine
at its heart. Commitment to success is Two once great teams battle for scraps in the Singapore GP. Have Williams
vital, but Liberty must be careful not (foreground) and McLaren both been overly-distracted by non-F1 projects? used to define Williams, but unless
to destroy the foundations of grand
prix racing as a consequence.
Out of focus group
Also on the subject of commitment, given
McLaren’s current woes and its need now to
hurriedly form a relationship with a new power
unit supplier (which is rated as only third best), I
find some of Zak Brown’s recent pronouncements
puzzling. Following Alonso’s beautifully-executed
‘compensation treat’ in the Indy 500 this summer,
Brown was adamant about a future McLaren
entry in IndyCar. Just recently, he made a similar
comment in regards to a Le Mans LMP1 project.
While McLaren’s ventures in supercars and a variety of technologies have been
very successful, for the Formula 1 operation it’s been downhill ever since
Assuming that this isn’t just hubris, does he really
believe that they can succeed in their stated task of
bringing the Formula 1 team back to its glory days
while diverting resources and concentration to
these other demanding disciplines?
Horsing around
McLaren should take heed of Ron Dennis’ throw-
away comment, way back when McLaren were top
of the heap, that ‘F1 isn’t enough’. While McLaren’s
subsequent ventures in supercars and a variety
of technologies has been very successful, for the
F1 operation it’s been downhill ever since. Even
back in motor racing history, Ferrari’s grand prix
efforts always suffered when winning Le Mans
was seen as a priority. That lesson was taken on
board eventually and the Prancing Horse has not
had a factory presence outside of F1 since the mid
1970s, a decision endorsed by the many races and
world championships won subsequently. Imagine
now, with F1 competition infinitely more complex
technologically and logistically, how much greater
is the necessity for McLaren to commit absolutely
100 per cent to the single aim of winning again,
without any distractions at all along the way. How
else to compete with Mercedes and Ferrari, both
of whose formidable organisations are totally
committed to the one objective of being top of the
heap, also against Red Bull and upcoming Renault?
Doubt also enters my mind about the real
commitment to winning displayed by Williams. As
a publicly-listed company, one understands that it
has a duty first to maximise assets and profits for its on not just making up the numbers.
shareholders. However, in recent years this certainly
appears to have dented Williams’ long-held
reputation for always favouring talent over budget,
despite protestations otherwise.
This principle became compromised when the
team began employing drivers with lesser ability
but bringing big bucks sponsorship. Obviously
funding was the issue that necessitated this
change of philosophy, but since then Williams
has experienced a steady decline with only the
occasional flash of speed to remind one of the
heady years of the past decades. In terms of
constructors’ points payments and sponsorship
revenue lost, one wonders how the scales might
have weighed overall regarding this sacrifice of
performance in exchange for money? Maybe
there was no choice, but despite the increased
financial health of the company, the taking on of
Lance Stroll – talented but raw and inexperienced
– together with the demands of a massive testing
programme coming as part of the deal,
must inevitably be a distraction for the
management of the organisation, no
matter how lucrative.
Lowe and behold
In just this year alone the organisation
of the extensive Williams 40th
anniversary Silverstone event, the
attendant book and film, all takes the
operation’s collective eye off the ball,
which must inevitably detract from
the business of winning.
Allowing Paddy Lowe to buy
into the operation implies more of
a return to the ‘real racers’ tag that
he can inject a massive kick up the
backside to this lack of real commitment, Britain’s
favourite F1 team will continue only as a racing
company earning enough to maintain itself as a
viable business – but no more.
Much like Sauber, whose decision, despite a
big new backer, to use year-old Ferrari engines
and accept pay drivers, I criticised pre-season as
displaying a real lack of commitment. Completely
uncompetitive in almost every race so far, it is to
be hoped that the recent signing of Fred Vasseur
as team principal will turn this around. Only total
commitment to win can exist in a team intent
NOVEMBER 2017 www.racecar-engineering.com 7
NASCAR – AERODYNAMICS

Engineering a race

With Xfinity races at Indianapolis tending to

be lacklustre affairs NASCAR R&D set itself
the task of spicing up the show with some
cunning one-shot aerodynamic developments
– its lead engineer gives us the inside story
By ERIC JACUZZI

I
t was an overcast Saturday at Indianapolis
Motor Speedway on July 22, a welcome
break from the usual scorching
temperatures for the annual summer
NASCAR race at the track. On the grid 40 cars
prepared to roll off for the start of the race,
while five nervous NASCAR R&D engineers and
fabricators huddled near the centre of pit road.
As the cars started their engines, a
procession of NASCAR officials came by to
collect a curious looking package with carbon
fibre bits protruding from each end of the
bubble wrapped exterior – the back-up ducts.
Once finished, the officials took their posts and
the R&D staff returned to the office of NASCAR
Xfinity series director Wayne Auton to see
whether nearly a year’s work would result in a
thrilling race. This is the story of how the Xfinity
series race package came to be, and the results
of NASCAR’s grand experiment.
Indy beginning
As previously outlined in the May 2017 issue
of Racecar Engineering (V27N5), NASCAR
conducted a test in October 2016 to evaluate a
new race package for Indianapolis. The package
itself began as a question – what would a
successful race on the challenging 2.5-mile, low
banked oval look like? The iconic venue has
hosted the top-tier Monster Energy NASCAR
Cup Series for the Brickyard 400 since 1994, with
the NASCAR Xfinity Series joining in 2012.
With its historic significance to racing, the
Indy event is considered one of NASCAR’s crown
jewel events, though racing heavy stock cars
on the track has always proven a challenge. The
task was handed to NASCAR R&D to determine
if there was a way to deliver a more consistently
exciting race for fans at this historic venue.

8 www.racecar-engineering.com NOVEMBER 2017


NASCAR R&D’s efforts led to close racing at the
Brickyard, where the Xfinity Series put on what was
generally agreed to be its best Indy race to date
The staff at the R&D centre knew that
slipstreaming had to play an important role in
keeping the cars close and mitigating losses
in the corners due to the single lane nature of
the track. That meant eliminating the typical
40 to 50mph difference observed between the
apex and end of straight speeds in the top tier
Cup series. The recipe called for the greatest
cornering speed an Xfinity car could achieve
while limiting the end of straight speed as much
as possible – essentially running flat out or very
close to it. Driver simulator work showed that
using the 2016 aerodynamics package along
with the current restrictor plate power level
would achieve this goal. It was then a matter
of maximising the slipstream effect to ensure
the cars could actually capitalise on their closer
proximity and make passes on track.
Bubble trouble
CFD work commenced, analysing how to
improve the slipstream and reduce the spike
in drag on a trailing car in the half- to one-car
length region. This effect is inherent to most
typical automotive shapes running in close
proximity outside of open wheel cars. The
Racing these heavy stock
cars on the Indianapolis
track has always proven
to be a challenge
approaching trail car effectively lowers the drag
of the lead car while experiencing an increase
in drag itself, resulting in what drivers refer to
as a drag bubble. Analysis of the CFD results
revealed this increase in drag occurred primarily
on the front fascia of the trailing racecar,
accounting for nearly all of the total drag
increase the trail car experienced.
The effect appeared to be due to the wake
inwash of the lead car impinging on the front
fascia of the trailing car, resulting in higher fascia
pressures and thus higher total vehicle drag.
This led to attempts to widen the wake using
NOVEMBER 2017 www.racecar-engineering.com 9
 it. Driver simulator work showed that using the 2016 aerodynamics package along with the current
restrictor plate power level would achieve this goal. It was then a matter of maximizing the slipstream
NASCAR
effect – AERODYNAMICS
to ensure the cars could actually capitalize on their closer proximity and make passes on track.
Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) work commenced, analyzing how to improve the
slipstream and reduce the spike in drag on a trailing car in the ½ to 1 car length region. This effect is
inherent to most typical automotive shapes running in close proximity outside of open wheel cars. The
It was decided that with
various devices with varying degrees of success, a package that included a targeted 2700lbf of
approaching trail car effectively lowers the drag of the lead car while experiencing an increase in drag
but ultimately paved the way to finding the downforce at 200mph, higher grip Goodyear
itself, resulting in what drivers refer to as a “drag bubble.” Analysis of the CFD results revealed this

the stakes as high as they

increase in drag occurring primarily on the front fascia of the successful solution
trailing car, of ducting
accounting air fromall
for nearly theoffront
the tyres, a restrictor plate cutting engine power to
total drag increase the trail car experienced. fascia and blowing it outward from the front of approximately 430bhp and the first version of
The effect appeared to be due to the wake inwash of the thewheel opening. The effonectthe
of the ducts aero ducts. The test was structured to allow 30
were, we simply could not
of the trailing car, resulting in higher fascia pressures and thuswas
lead car
pronounced
higher
impinging
in CFDdrag.
total vehicle in bothThis
front
single
lead
fascia
carto minutes of practice followed by a mock race for
attempts to widen the wake using various devices with varying degrees
(Figure of success,
1) and in multi-carbutruns,
ultimately
with a 25paved
per the various configurations, allowing NASCAR
afford to be conservative
the way to finding the successful solution of ducting air from the
from the front of the wheel opening. The effect of the ducts was
centfront fascia
reduction
pronounced
car between
or and
moreblowing
in CFD
zero and
in drag onit outward
in both
four car
the trailing
single
lengths. Thecar
and the teams to assess the cars in both
individual and race states. The package without
in our approach
(Figure 2) and in multicar runs, with a 25% reduction or morequestion
and four car lengths. The question remained - would this improvement
in drag on the trailing
remained
woulddiff
make a noticeable
– wouldcarthis
beerence
enough
between
onto
be enough
themake
zeroto
track?a
the aero ducts featured close racing with the
group of three unable to separate; however,
noticeable difference on the track? The teams of Richard Childress Racing, passing was extremely difficult. Adding the
Roush Fenway Racing and Kaulig Racing tested aero ducts led to significant passing on track,
with drivers reporting that they could slipstream
and complete a pass much easier than without
them. Watching from the pit road, the action
was exciting (especially for a test session!) with
a very different look and feel to the typical
Indianapolis on-track action. The package was
obviously ready for prime time.

Rubber stamped
After presenting the test data to NASCAR
ng at North Carolina State University is the ability to call on the expertise of my advisor, Dr.
management and the technical directors of the
ranlund. Dr. Granlund is an Assistant Professor in the department, with a background in teams, NASCAR’s top management
Xfinity Series
namics and aeronautics from the Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden. As a Ph.D. madestudent at with the race package
the call to proceed
in January 2017. As with all decisions made in
ch, he worked on aero/hydrodynamic stability of maneuvering airships and submarines. He
NASCAR, team costs are of paramount concern,
eaches automotive and aerospace engineering courses and directs basic and applied research
especially with the lower budgets in the Xfinity
subsonic and supersonic experimental unsteady fluid mechanics supporting U.S.Series. Air Force,
This meant that NASCAR footed the bill
well asFigure
working
Figure2.1: CFD
withdelta
CFDvelocity
NASCAR
velocitydelta plot, R&D.
plot showing
showing the
the wake
wake deficit
deficit created
createdby
bythe
ducts. White/red
ducts. shows
White/red highhigh
shows velocity air air
velocity exiting ducts
exiting the to produce the aero ducts for the package –
ducts. and also meant is was able to maintain control
. Granlund was of great assistance in helping to analyze the sensitivities of the ducts from
over the ducts.the
The ducts would not be made
ork. We studied a variety of parameters and their effect on the cars such as duct available exit height,
to teams for wind tunnel testing, and
atio, and exit to angle to arrive at the best compromise. It was found that the lower geometrythewould
ductsnot be provided to the teams,
other than the relevant hole patterns.
e track and the greater the exit size, the better they performed at both increasing single car
e and improving slipstreaming. Exit angle was also crucial – a perpendicular duct exit Prime offeredfascia
ipstreaming but actually hurt downforce, while shallower duct exit angles still offered the At R&D, goodgreen light on the package meant
a final push in CFD to analyse the best possible
ing performance yet increased downforce. Normalized results for the lead and trail car drag
configuration for the ducts. An additional
in Figure 4. complication was that the front fascia of the
The October 2016 Indianapolis test. The day was structured to allow 30 minutes of practice laps followed by a mock race Xfinity car had seen a change in the off-season,
with the front splitter height lowered one inch
to bring it in line with the Cup Series cars. It was
also decided that with stakes this high, we could
not afford to be conservative in our approach
to this – every risk within reason had to be
considered to make the package a success.
This meant reviewing our assumptions and
trying to fine-tune as much benefit as possible
into the final duct design.
An advantage of my current doctoral
studies in the department of Mechanical and
Aerospace Engineering at North Carolina State
University is the ability to call on the expertise of
my adviser, Dr Kenneth Granlund. Dr Granlund
is an assistant professor in the department,
with a background in vehicle dynamics
and aeronautics from the Royal Institute of
Technology, Sweden. As a PhD student at
Virginia Tech, he worked on aero/hydrodynamic
stability of manoeuvring airships and
submarines. He currently teaches automotive
Figure 2. Normalised results for lead and trail car total drag for various duct exit angles at a constant inlet/exit ratio and aerospace engineering courses and directs
Figure 4. Normalized total drag for various duct exit angles at a constant inlet/exit ratio.
10 www.racecar-engineering.com NOVEMBER 2017
Adding the aero ducts led to significant passing on the race track
basic and applied research projects in subsonic
and supersonic experimental unsteady fluid
mechanics supporting US Air Force and Army,
as well as working with NASCAR R&D.
Dr Granlund was of great assistance in
helping to analyse the sensitivities of the ducts
from the original work. We studied a variety of
parameters and their effect on the cars such
as duct exit height, inlet/exit ratio, and exit to
angle to arrive at the best compromise. It was
found that the lower the ducts were to the
track and the greater the exit size, the better
they performed at both increasing single car
downforce and improving slipstreaming. Exit
angle was also crucial; a perpendicular duct
exit offered the best slipstreaming but
actually hurt downforce, while shallower duct
exit angles still offered good slipstreaming
performance yet increased downforce.
Normalised results for the lead and trail car
drag are shown in Figure 2.
From a rule-making perspective, adding
a device that hurt downforce and added
drag would motivate teams to sabotage our
efforts. It was decided to maximise the exit
area by widening the duct to the absolute limit
allowable for tyre clearance and choose the
most practical exit angle of 42 degrees from
the longitudinal axis. The overall height of the
duct was also shortened, since the height study
showed better performance lower to the track
and eliminated the need to trim the flange
between the upper and lower fascias. The exit
of the duct was shortened to move it closer to
the front of the car to avoid the need to scallop
the duct for tyre clearance when turning,
but it would still be a close fit. The ducts still
needed to clear the splitter structure without
drastic changes in volume throughout the
duct; the design CAD is shown in Figure 3. The
differences in design between the test and the
race version are shown at the foot of this page.
Finally, there was the small matter of
building the finalised ducts. NASCAR solicited
bids from several composites manufacturers
in the industry, ultimately choosing Crawford
Composites of Denver, North Carolina. Crawford
utilised multiple tools to produce the ducts,
ultimately supplying 56 sets to NASCAR for
the expected field of 40. The ducts were drilled
and fitted with nutserts and lovingly boxed
into four pallet-sized boxes for the journey to
Indianapolis, with the human cargo not far
behind. With the rulebook updated for the race
weekend, there was no turning back now.

The race
The R&D team arrived early to the track on
Friday and took up position near the garage
entrance to distribute the ducts to each team’s
crew chief. For many, this was the first time
they had laid their hands on them, but
installation went remarkably well thanks to the
efforts of the series staff to provide templates
and test fit them at team shops (they were not
allowed to keep them). There was some initial
concern over tyre clearance to the ducts, with
teams worried the tyres would rub the ducts
during sharp cornering in the garage area, but
this ultimately proved unfounded.
First practice took place in the early
afternoon on Friday, with peak temperatures
around 90degF and the track surface in a green
Figure 5. Final duct design in yellow showing surrounding structure.
state. Drivers were unsettled about how slick
the track was – they were not able to run flat
out even with clean air ahead. Apex speeds
The differences in design between the test version and the race version were lowerare shownlikely
than expected, in Figure
attributable6.
to the higher ambient and track temperatures
Figure 3. Final duct design in yellow, also showing surrounding structure compared to the test conditions. But by second

The differences in design between the test version (left) and the version-two duct used in the race (right). Crawford Composites was hired to manufacture the race ducts for NASCAR
Figure 6. Initial duct design (left) compared to the version 2 ducts used in the race (right).
NOVEMBER 2017 www.racecar-engineering.com 11
NASCAR – AERODYNAMICS
Preparing to hand out the back-up duct sets to NASCAR officials before the race
William Byron wins with Paul Menard just 0.108 seconds adrift
practice things were looking up – packs of 15
to 20 cars were snaking down the straights in
an unusually aggressive practice session. Teams
had used the time between practices to make
adjustments that had moved the needle toward
the type of on-track behaviour expected from
the test. At the flag for practice two, 25 cars were
on the track attempting to learn as much as
possible about what lay ahead in the race.
On Saturday, qualifying took place shortly
before the race, with the No.9 car of William
Byron taking pole at a speed of 165.283mph.
It was obvious that there were divergent aero
strategies at play, with some top organisations
Given the success of the race, the Indianapolis race package
will live on in the NASCAR Xfinity Series next season
12 www.racecar-engineering.com NOVEMBER 2017
Start of the race. The R&D department looked on anxiously as its package was put to the test
Post-Indy wind tunnel testing at Aerodyn Wind Tunnel with the No.1 Chevrolet of Elliot Sadler
running more downforce (and resulting higher
drag) with the hopes of an advantage during
the race, while others focused on minimising
drag. With the spoiler size set by NASCAR,
tweaks to the downforce and drag levels
of an individual racecar is largely left to
teams by optimising the body within the
allowable tolerances, as well as splitter angle
settings on the front of the car.
Final draft
The race itself was a whirlwind for the R&D staff,
who watched from the series director’s trailer
that features live feeds of 20 track cameras as
well as the broadcast feed of the race. On track,
groups of cars were racing together as hoped
– not a pack consisting of the entire field, but
smaller groups of three to five cars. The leading
car proved unable to escape into the distance
in clean air as commonly seen at Indianapolis.
At one point, the No.18 Toyota of Kyle Busch
took a several-second lead after a double-file
restart, but was run down within two laps by a
group of charging cars. Blocking was prevalent
throughout the race, making the straights
nearly as exciting as the corners, which at times
featured three-wide racing on the narrow track.
The finish of the race featured a shoot-out
between Byron driving for JR Motorsports
and veteran Cup series driver Paul Menard,
who battled for several laps before finishing
0.108 seconds apart. Immediately after
the chequered flag, the R&D team assisted
competition officials in collecting the ducts back
from the teams. Overall, only three sets were lost
due to crash or debris damage.
The NASCAR R&D team didn’t have much
time to rest after returning from Indianapolis,
with a scheduled wind tunnel shift to validate
the duct performance on the No.1 Chevrolet of
Elliot Sadler. Because of the secrecy involving
the actual duct design and the tight window
teams had to prepare their cars prior to the race,
it was not possible to test the ducts on a car
in the wind tunnel before the race. The results
of the test correlated well with CFD (Table 1),
with a downforce gain of 94lbf predicted in
CFD vs the measured 100lbf. In the race tape
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 NASCAR – AERODYNAMICS

configuration the L/D correlation was spot

Table 1: Wind tunnel deltas compared to CFD predicted values. Full tape refers to the on with a -0.03 improvement. Force levels are
radiator opening being covered completely (no cooling flow)
all scaled to 200mph, as is the standard practice
Run Drag (lbf) Total Lift (lbf) Front Lift (lbf) Rear Lift (lbf) L/D in the NASCAR racing world.
Duct delta – race tape 30 -100 -64 -36 -0.03 In addition to validating the forces on the
Duct delta – full tape 36 -115 -74 -41 -0.02 car, the accuracy of the CFD-predicted wake
CFD predicted delta 26 -94 -52 -42 -0.03 change was assessed using a Kiel probe array,
custom designed by the R&D Centre team.
Probe density was focused around the higher
delta regions predicted by CFD. The measured
pressure coefficient correlated well with
simulation, showing a large wake deficit region
running along the side of the car created by the
ducts. The lateral expansion of the wake was
slightly less than CFD, though this is most likely
attributable to the wall proximity at Aerodyn.

Figure 10. Kiel probe array for duct evaluation. A good race?
Analysing the quality of a race as a spectator is
In addition to validating the forces on the car, the accuracy of the CFD-predicted wake change a difficult thing with each fan’s opinion varying
was assessed using a Kiel probe array (Figure 10), custom designed by the R&D Center team. Probeon what makes for a good race. Is it a close
ensity was focused around the higher delta regions predicted by CFD. The measured pressure battle for the lead? Lots of passing or crashes, or
maybe simply their favourite driver winning? So,
oefficient correlated well with simulation, showing a large wake deficit region running along the side of
instead of relying solely on qualitative analysis,
he car created by the ducts. The lateral expansion of the wake was slightly less than CFD, though this is
including fan opinion, NASCAR has attempted
most likely attributable to the wall proximity at Aerodyn.
The accuracy of the CFD-predicted wake change was assessed by fitting a Kiel probe array to the racecar in the wind tunnel to create quantitative metrics that are analysed
after each event. Table 2 shows a selection of
statistics from the race in 2017 as compared to
the three-year average and past data from the
last three races. The race broke previous records
for number of unique leaders, green flag passes
for the lead, quality passes, number of lead
changes, margin of victory, and the average
time between first and fifth place under green
flag conditions. The margin of victory (0.108
seconds) was a NASCAR Xfinity Series track
record at Indianapolis. On the qualitative side,
the fan action score is a metric culled from a
pool of fans who sign up at the beginning of
each season and are randomly polled on the
race in the immediate aftermath. The 8.1 rating
ranks near the top of the charts for all Xfinity
races in a season, and handily beat the 5.5 rating
of the 2016 race. Another data point comes from
journalist Jeff Gluck of www.jeffgluck.com and
CFD predictedFigure 11.probe
Cp at Kiel CFDrake
predicted
locationCp at Kiel
(left) probe rake
vs measured location (left)
Cp. Measured vs measured
pressure Cp (right).well with CFD
coefficient correlated his popular ‘Was it a good race?’ Twitter polls,
with 87 per cent of fans voting affirmatively.
Table 2: Race metrics from the Lilly Diabetes 250
Criteria 2017 3-Yr avg 2016 2015 2014 Up for the Cup?
Given the success of the race, the Indy race
Number of unique leaders 8 4.7 2 6 6
package will live on in the Xfinity Series next
Green flag passes for the lead at timing loops 29 9.7 10 10 9
season with discussion of possibly expanding
Quality passes 518 396 251 449 488
its implementation. Application in the Monster
Number of lead changes at start/finish line 16 6 2 8 9
Energy Cup Series is possible in the future,
Margin of victory 0.108 0.56 0.411 0.421 0.833
though the process would be slightly more
Average time between 1st and 5th at S/F Line 2.5 8 8.9 7.7 7.3
complex due to the higher degree of design
Fan action score 8.1 6.8 5.5 7.4 7.4 freedom in the body styling. But it will not be an
insurmountable challenge to design ducts that
The race broke previous records for number of achieve the same result while affecting each
manufacturer’s car in an equal manner.
unique leaders, green flag passes for the lead, One of the peculiar facets of working for
the sanctioning body is we don’t often get to

number of lead changes and margin of victory feel the thrill of victory that a team gets when
it wins race. But on an overcast Saturday at
Indianapolis, we came pretty close.

14 www.racecar-engineering.com NOVEMBER 2017

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FORMULA 1 – FORCE INDIA VJM10
Fourth India
It’s not just the pink livery
that makes Force India’s
VJM10 the stand-out car
in the Formula 1 pack,
for as we discovered the
team has also produced
what is probably the best
racecar outside of the big
three F1 operations
By SAM COLLINS
16 www.racecar-engineering.com NOVEMBER 2017
W
hen asked about his favourite
feature of the 2017 Force India,
the small Silverstone-based
outfit’s technical director, Andy
Green, jokes ‘the colour!’ The VJM10 is, indeed,
one of the most distinctive cars in Formula 1.
But it’s not only that bright pink paint job, it also
has an eye-catching design with a unique nose
treatment, but more eye-catching for most of
the team’s rivals is its solid fourth place in the
constructors’ championship.
Design work on the VJM10 started before
the 2016 season got underway but still perhaps
later than Green would have liked. This was due
to a lack of clarity over the 2017 regulations,
which only started to be really firmed up
during pre-season testing in 2016. As has been
detailed previously (see V27N4) the new rules
included a more potent aerodynamic package
with a much larger diffuser, swept back wings
and the bargeboard area freed up for open
development. In addition to this, mechanical
grip would increase with much larger tyres.
A number of cars in Formula 1 in recent
years, including the recent line of designs from
Force India, have run with a high rake angle
for aerodynamic reasons, with the rear of the
car sitting higher than the front, but it was not
clear to the Force India designers if this would
work with the new rulebook. ‘When we first got
the regulations through it was about trying to
understand what concept we thought would
work and what, if anything, we could carry
over from our previous year’s car philosophy,’
Green says. ‘It was the first thing we looked at
from a performance perspective, we needed to
understand if these regulations would allow
us to run with a high rake philosophy, and
whether that was the route we want to be
heading down for this year and beyond.
‘That was the first real litmus test of where
we were going to go. All those simulations
were coming in and all the preliminary answers
were telling us that we could continue to run
a high rake,’ Green adds. ‘As it did not look like
there would be any issues we pressed the
button and went with that approach.’
With that key decision taken the preliminary
aerodynamic work on the VJM10 was
undertaken at the TMG wind tunnel in Cologne,
 ‘We needed to understand
if these regulations would
allow us to run with a
high rake philosophy’

Force India has proven to be best of the rest so far this season and
sits in fourth place in the constructors’ standings despite some
high-profile race-ruining accidents when its drivers have collided

TECH SPEC

where Force India uses a 60 per cent scale
model. ‘Once the aerodynamic guys had started
work our attention turned to the structural side
of the car,’ Green says. ‘We had to estimate where
we were going to be aerodynamically at the
end of the season and what the loads would be.
Trying to predict that 18 months to two years in
advance is a big question, and hard to answer,
but it is a fundamental question and one you
have to ask as that is the car you are designing
the structures for, not the one you launch. The
aerodynamic team then gave us some early
indications of where they thought that they
would start the season aerodynamically, then
we looked historically at our development rate
following a big regulation change. That gave us
an idea of what level of development we could
see during the season and allowed us to try and
predict where the car would be by the end of
the 2017 season in Abu Dhabi.’
After analysing the results of that very early
work the team at Force India discovered that
one track in particular would define what the
structures that make up the VJM10 would have
to withstand. ‘We ran some simulations, sweeps
through some of the critical tracks, to try to
understand where we would see the peak loads,’
Green says. ‘It became quite apparent that Eau
Rouge at Spa-Francorchamps was a stand-out
corner, so the car had to be fundamentally
designed to take that corner.‘
Gripping mystery
As was the case with all teams developing cars
for 2017 there was one area where information
was severely lacking – again due to the very late
confirmation of the rule changes. ‘The biggest
catch to understanding all this was the tyres,
we had no visibility of what Pirelli were going to
bring for 2017,’ Green says. ‘In fact, Pirelli didn’t
know what they were going to bring. There
was no point in asking them as they were still
developing them. We had to make assumptions
about what they were going to do, where they
were going to set the compounds. We needed
to know how quick they were going to be; that
makes a huge difference to the car you design.’
The problem was that Pirelli had only done
limited running using fairly unrepresentative
mule cars which did not generate the same
Force India VJM10
Chassis: Carbon fibre composite monocoque with
Zylon side anti-intrusion panels.
Power unit: Mercedes AMG High Performance Powertrains
V6 Turbo 1.6-litre with ERS
Suspension: Front – aluminium alloy uprights with carbon fibre
composite wishbones, trackrod and pushrod. Inboard chassis
mounted torsion springs, dampers and anti-roll bar assembly.
Rear – aluminium alloy uprights with carbon fibre composite
wishbones, trackrod and pullrod. Hydro-mechanical springs,
dampers and anti-roll bar assembly.
Transmission: Mercedes AMG F1 8-speed,
semi-automatic seamless shift.
Wheels and tyres: BBS forged wheels; Pirelli tyres
Fuel and lubricants: Petronas
Brakes: AP Racing / 920E calipers with
carbon-carbon friction material.

NOVEMBER 2017 www.racecar-engineering.com 17

FORMULA 1 – FORCE INDIA VJM10
forces as the 2017 cars would. ‘We needed to
not underestimate what Pirelli could bring,
because they could bring some really aggressive
compounds and completely change the loads
on the car,’ Green says. ‘So we had to anticipate
that happening, and once we had all of that
information we could start to build a picture of
what the car would look like and structurally
what it needs to be. Then we can work out
‘We are far better off
running a slightly heavy
car rather than one which
needs to be redesigned’
VJM10 uses Mercedes ’box, but as it’s designed for a lower rake car some compromises have been needed at the rear end
The VJM10 struggled to meet the new, heavier, weight limit during development but achieved it by the start of the season
18 www.racecar-engineering.com NOVEMBER 2017
how big all the wishbone legs need to be, how
strong all the attachments need to be, and how
stiff we need to make the chassis. It’s a long
process when you’re starting from scratch like
that. It’s a big drain on our resources.’
Design dilemma
Not knowing any real details of the tyre
performance left Force India with something of
a dilemma: design the car to be the lightest it
could be but marginal in terms of withstanding
loads, or play it safe and risk being overweight.
‘We can’t afford to underestimate that, as we
are not a team that can get halfway through a
season and start redesigning the suspension or
the chassis to try and cope with a load increase,’
Green says. ‘It would absolutely destroy our
development capability if we realised at the
start of the season we had made a mistake on
the performance of the car and had to start
redesigning fundamental components. That
would see our development budget gone,
so it is one or the other. We are either
developing a car structurally or developing a
car from the performance perspective, we
can’t do both. That’s life as a small team. That
means giving ourselves margin with the peak
loads we think we are going to see.’
The risk of playing it safe in terms of being
able to cope with the loads through the car is
that components end up being over-engineered
and in turn overweight. ‘We are trading grams
and sometimes kilograms, we are far better off
running a slightly heavy car rather than one
which needs to be redesigned,’ Green says.
It is clear that the VJM10 was marginal in
terms of weight during its development, despite
the fact that in 2017 the minimum weight of the
cars is the heaviest it has ever been at 728kgs.
‘It was tight but the guys did a great job,’ Green
says. ‘In winter testing the car was over the
limit, but by the time we got to [the first race at]
Melbourne is was just under. We can slowly trim
weight off throughout the season.’
With getting the car underweight proving
a bit of an issue, getting full movement within
the regulated weight distribution limit was
a problem, too. The limit is a minimum of
330kg on the front axle and 391kg on the rear,
giving a window of just 7kg. ‘We don’t have
full movement in the window, that was one of
the issues we had,’ Green says. ‘So we made a
decision on where we wanted to put the weight
distribution, then run the car on the new tyres
and see what they needed. It turns out we
guessed right, and I think a lot of teams did,
to be honest. We are pinned at one end of the
range but we are happy with that.’
Nose picking
In general terms the design of the Mercedes-
powered car is relatively conventional with
pushrod actuated front torsion bars suspension,
and pullrods at the rear. However, a notable
area of difference is the nose, which features a
continuation of Force India’s unique approach to
the front crash structure regulations – but more
notably a rather unfortunate looking hump at
the rear of the nose structure. This covers some
of the inboard front suspension components,
which are mounted on top of the monocoque.
‘That is to do with the stiffness targets we set
ourselves,’ Green says. ‘We are very sensitive to
how low we can run the nose of the car so front
stiffness is important to us and we decided that
we didn’t want to compromise on it at this early
stage. Aerodynamically it is neutral putting it all
on the top of the chassis and having that shape
on the nose. The other alternative was to lower
it all and add additional weight to the racecar.
It was a basic decision; do we make the car
look a little bit nicer and lower the pushrods,
but to get the stiffness back again we would
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 FORMULA 1 – FORCE INDIA VJM10
have to add a kilogram of weight to it. That was
an easy question to answer, then, we had to
keep the weight down on all those little areas. It
is easy to add a few grams, but they all add up,
and then you are in big trouble.’
Boxed in
Force India utilises not only the Mercedes
power unit but also its transmission. ‘There is
a big area of the car we have very little control
over, including the power unit and the gearbox
main-case,’ Green says. ‘That means we are
obliged to run the Mercedes pickup points.
‘We are very sensitive to
how low we can run the
nose of the car so front
stiffness is important’
Roll hoop contains segmented air intakes with outer portions for the cooling while inner section directs air for combustion
With a lack of new regulation data pre-season, peak suspension loads were formulated with Eau Rouge at Spa in mind
20 www.racecar-engineering.com NOVEMBER 2017
They do compromise their design to allow us
to run the suspension and ride heights that we
run, because ours is quite different to theirs.
While they do help us and allow us to do that,
the fundamental pickup points are designed
for a low rake car, and so we would prefer to
have some things in different places, but that
is just one of the compromises we have to live
with, we are not in a position to design and
manufacture our own gearbox.’
The rear suspension of the car was, as was
common with all 2017 designs, something of a
point of interest early in the season as a result
of the FIA’s rules clarification on collapsible
elements (see April 2017 V27N4) which allow
the car to vary rear ride height depending on
aerodynamic forces. Force India was not one
of the teams required to make changes and
according to Green the clarification did not stop
the team doing what it intended at the rear of its
car. ‘At the time we were not that happy about
the way the rules were going, but it’s all been
clarified, what we can and can’t do, and the FIA
are happy about what the teams are doing,’ he
says. ‘We still manage to shed ride height to get
the drag down going down the straight. One of
the main issues of a high rake car is that it tends
to be draggy, but we can do things to make that
less so. We didn’t need to change our concept.’
In the pink
Despite the consistent form of the cars the
engineers at Force India are not content, even
though the team is on target to match its
best ever World Constructors’ Championship
finishing position of fourth and there is still a
lot of work to do. ‘The cars tend to get more
complicated as they develop and generally
more complicated components are heavier,’
Green says. ‘We are always developing the
suspension and that tends to get heavier, not
lighter. The car tends to gain weight naturally
if you just let it develop. Every year you have to
drag the weight down again. Every single time
a part gets made, we are looking at ways of
making it lighter without losing performance.
It’s continual and it is always at the forefront of
everyone in the drawing office’s mind.’
This mission to cut the weight of both the
VJM10 and its 2018 successor has reached an
extreme level of detail. ‘All the departments look
at materials specifications, asking themselves
if they are using the right material, is there
something better,’ Green says. ‘They ask is
there a material that allows them to maintain
stiffness and reduce weight, things like that.
That is especially true in the composite
department where there is so much more
freedom to look at different materials.
‘They are always looking to see if some
material can be taken out of a component,’
Green adds. ‘If you take that material out it
makes it lighter; [and] it might make it more
flexible before it makes it slightly less strong.’
Material world
Force India’s constant quest to get the best
materials is to an extent reliant not only
on finding new solutions but also proving
manufacturers’ claims. ‘We tend toward a lot of
static testing to validate materials, rather than
rely on simulation or the stated properties,’
Green says. ‘You find materials at the trade
shows or in magazines are so new that the
availability is very small, so we have to wait
months or even years for these to become
available to us in the quantity we need.
Sometimes there is a big lag between seeing the
materials and having a part ready to run on the
car. Also, bigger teams often get the parts ahead
of us as they are willing to pay a premium. We
have to wait a season or more to get it.’
Detail designs are then constantly adapted
on the VJM10 in order to further reduce its
weight. ‘Things are always being remade to save
weight,’ Green says. ‘It’s big parts, too. The floor,
for example, is one of the heaviest components
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 FORMULA 1 – FORCE INDIA VJM10
on the car, and we are always looking to try to
take weight out every time a new one is made.
We look at everything, even down to the way
we paint the car – is there a lighter weight pink
paint we can use? Do we have to have metallic
elements in the paint which we might be able to
get rid of, that alone could save 300g. It’s even
down to the thickness of stickers on the livery.’
The Force India weight loss project is only
set to get harder in 2018 with the addition of
the new Halo cockpit protection device. ‘With
‘We still manage to shed
some of the ride height
to get the drag down
going along the straight’
The reason for the ugly nose hump is that suspension parts are placed on top of the chassis in a quest to maintain stiffness
Force India uses the Mercedes power unit. Rear suspension is conventional, with pullrod-activated inboard torsion springs
22 www.racecar-engineering.com NOVEMBER 2017
the VJM10, if we want to reduce the weight
of the car much more we are moving into
fundamentally redesigning the structures of the
car,’ Green says. ‘But for next year knowing what
the loads are we can now optimise and start
to reduce weight for that design. However, the
weight of the Halo and the mounting of it far
exceeds the increase in minimum weight,
so we have to make big reductions again. It
is 100 grams here and 50 grams there, luckily
there is some margin to get weight out. So our
target is again to get the car on the weight limit
and that is a big challenge, probably a bigger
challenge than it was this year.’
Data-driven
For the engineers, one element of the design of
2018’s car is somewhat easier than that of 2017,
though, in that they have real data to work from
now. ‘Now we have done it, and are on to the
second iteration we are a lot more comfortable
with what we are seeing,’ Green says. ‘We have
got data, and as we are a very data-driven team
that is a good thing. We have gone through the
first half of the season, we have gone through
Spa and we know what loads we have seen,
we now know aerodynamically where we sit,
we know where Pirelli have put the tyres and
where on the compound range they sit, and we
have some idea what they are doing next year,
going one step softer. Next year is looking a lot
better in terms of the accuracy of the data we
are working with and we are also starting to get
some carry-over parts which is good for a team
like us as we can start pre-season testing with
existing components, and it lets us bring an
update package earlier on in the season.’
Room to improve
Green struggles to think of any part of the car
he is really proud of in isolation. This is not
because he thinks that there is nothing on the
car to be proud of, rather that he thinks the
team simply could do better. ‘I look at almost
every part of the car and think “I could have
done that better”. I think everyone in the team
does that, too. I wish we didn’t have the T-wings
on the car, I think that was a bad regulatory
mistake, that really annoys me when I look at
the car. Actually, the VJM10 looks old to me
now, I’m used to working with the new concept
for the 2018 car. There are so many areas
where we know we can do better, but we are
reasonably happy with the compromises we
made. There is nothing on the car which makes
me think “that was a really bad call”. There is
nothing stand-out, either, I just see everything
and know that we can do a better job, but the
car was the best we could do in the time we
had and with the data we had.
‘There are nice details on the car, a lot
of them you would never see, they are all
under the skin,’ Green adds. ‘Some of the most
amazing detail only ever gets seen in the sub
assembly area. You look at one of the uprights,
the machining from a solid billet, you just
think that is a lovely piece of work. But to say
I am I proud of any particular element, well
I don’t think we really think like that, I don’t
think there is anyone who would look at any
component of the car and say we have done a
fantastic job, it’s a perfect concept … We look
at our car and know we can do better, but we
look at some of the other cars, and we see the
amazing detail on some of the big teams’ cars,
sometimes we are in awe of what they can do,
the level of detail they can put into some of the
components – something we just cannot do.’
With solid performances all season long and
a excellent reliability record, the VJM10 is set for
a very creditable fourth-place finish in the world
championship, but despite this Green already
has his sights set on the future. And knowing
this is sure to have those working at rival
Formula 1 teams not a little concerned.
FORMULA 2 – DALLARA F2/18
Finishing school
The 2018 F2 car is a far cry from the FIA’s original
intentions for its feeder category, but will the Dallara
F2/18 still deliver where it matters – preparing drivers
and engineers for F1? Racecar investigates
By SAM COLLINS
O
ne of the longest serving open-
wheel racecars of recent years
will be officially retired at Abu
Dhabi in late November. Dallara’s
GP2/11 is to be replaced in the FIA Formula 2
championship by an all new design from the
Italian constructor, called the F2/18.
Formula 2 was relaunched by the FIA at the
start of 2017, essentially a re-branding of the
existing GP2 Series. But when the tender for a
promoter for the ‘new F2’ was first announced in
2015, the proposed technical regulations were
very different to that of GP2. Indeed, it called for
a multi-chassis, open wheel series using hybrid
powertrains. ‘The tender had to change, it
needed to be a single make chassis rather than
an open class,’ Didier Perrin, technical director
of F2 says. ‘It is the most efficient way to do
affordable motor racing. Open championships
cost so much more and there was no possibility
24 www.racecar-engineering.com NOVEMBER 2017
The Dallara F2/18 uncovered. The FIA had wanted an
open formula for its new F2 car but this was deemed
to be unworkable, chiefly on the grounds of costs
to have an open championship at this level, the
costs would be too high, so the tender reverted
to a single make category. Also, to have a hybrid,
it’s difficult to do it in a cost effective way, so we
didn’t even look at it with the new car.’
Key criteria
With a single make series confirmed the task
then fell to Perrin and his staff to define what
exactly the car would be, and after some
contemplation three key criteria were set. ‘From
the beginning the main aim was to increase
the safety standards, as we wanted to be
the ultimate in safety, then the second most
important element was the show,’ Perrin says.
‘The cars must be able to follow each other and
race, that is the key aim with the aerodynamics.
In an open championship the aerodynamics
are developed to produce the most efficient
package possible in terms of performance, but
in a one make series the emphasis must be in
allowing the cars to follow.
‘The third objective was controlling the cost
and keeping this as low as possible,’ Perrin adds.
‘When I talk about the cost I’m not talking about
the purchase cost of the car, I’m talking about
the operating cost, that is what really makes the
difference. That impacts the budget the driver
has to pay to race for a season, so a key point
is that the car must be reliable and easy to run
with a limited number of people. That must
be in mind from the beginning of the design
process. If the car is too complex or needs too
many people to run it, there is no way that you
can have an affordable racing season.’
One additional criteria for the chassis was
also set to deal with a trend among young
drivers, and is something that is intended to
increase the size of the talent pool. ‘It may
sound minor, but something we had to deal
Just like its predecessor the F2/18 has been
designed to look like an F1 car. Formula 1 will
‘The cars must be able
also be running with the Halo next season
to follow each other and
race, that is the key aim
with the aerodynamics’

While the chassis has been built to 2017 F1 safety

standards it’s similar in concept and uses the same
materials as the GP2/11 it will replace in F2 next year

NOVEMBER 2017 www.racecar-engineering.com 25

FORMULA 2 – DALLARA F2/18

Above: The cockpit features extra Zylon panels which has had
the knock on effect of increasing the car’s weight. It has also
been designed so that taller race drivers can be accommodated
Right: The Halo fitted on the launch car was actually a dummy.
The car was not originally going to include the new safety device
and Dallara has had to design-in extra hard points on the chassis

‘As our first aim was to

improve safety we had to
build the chassis to the F1
2017 safety standards and
pass all of the same tests’
with is that drivers are getting taller, on average,’
Perrin says. ‘We started to have some issues
with the old car and tall drivers. It’s something
so simple, but we needed to change the chassis
so tall drivers could fit, so with those criteria
decided we set that out to all of our suppliers.’
In terms of those suppliers it is clear that
continuity was an important factor, too, with
Dallara leading the project, Mecachrome
supplying the engine, and Hewland the
transmission – as was the case with the current
GP2/11 that races in F2 now. ‘As the first aim
we were set was to improve safety we had to
build the chassis to the Formula 1 2017 safety
standards and pass all of the same tests,’ Luca
Pignacca, chief designer at Dallara explains. ‘This
had an impact not only on the technical content
of the car but also the appearance of the car. So
it has a low nose, which according to the FIA is
safer, so we had to follow this path.’
Tub concept
While Dallara is very familiar with the current
Formula 1 safety standards and chassis
construction techniques, as it also builds
the chassis for the Haas F1 Team, according
to Pignacca not all of those methods were
applicable with the F2/18. ‘The chassis is not
completely different in terms of concept
compared to the old one,’ he says. ‘We decided
to use the same materials as we did with the
GP2/11, and those materials are not the same
standard as you would find in Formula 1. We
did this for cost reasons, so in structural and
conceptual terms the new monocoque is pretty
similar, we just had to add more material and
design it in a slightly different way.’
As a result of this approach, and the
somewhat larger cockpit required for taller
drivers, the new monocoque is notably heavier
than the design it replaces. It features a lot more
Zylon (anti-intrusion) panels compared to the
old one, too. ‘As is the case with current F1 cars
the whole front of the cockpit is clad with panels
and this alone accounts for 7 to 8kg. Then we
have the Red Bull style side impact structures
and that adds weight too,’ Pignacca says. ‘The
new engine is also a bit heavier, with the turbo

26 www.racecar-engineering.com NOVEMBER 2017

The Mecachrome 3.4-litre V6 powerplant has already
proved itself in GP3 in normally-aspirated spec. This
F2 version packs a turbocharger and produces 620bhp

and intercooler the weight distribution is moved

slightly rearward, but with the extra safety
measures we have actually seen the overall
balance move a bit more towards the front.’

Halo there
One of the most distinctive features of the
Dallara F2/18 is the Halo cockpit protection
system which, of course, will be a feature of all
Formula 1 cars in 2018, too. However, when
the racecar was designed it was not thought
that it would feature at all, leaving the Dallara
engineers with something of a headache.
‘While the shape of the tub was conceived
to fit the Halo in the first place, when we
started this project over two years ago, we then
decided that it would not feature it after all,’
Pignacca says. ‘Luckily we retained the shape
but the structure was not there for its mounting.
Because we didn’t think there would be Halo we
didn’t put in all the extra material and inserts it
needs. So we started production on the chassis
without the Halo mountings, and actually the
first three chassis we made did not have the
F2/18 features a Formula 1 style swept back front wing which has been optimised to minimise the wake mountings, but then the FIA decided that the
effect – the quality of the racing was one of three key criteria for Dallara when it was designing this car car should feature it after all. To install it you
need a lot more carbon fibre, and also hard

‘The car must be reliable and easy to

points which those first chassis did not feature.
Now we have some very nice show cars!

run with a limited number of people’

‘The loads the structure has to withstand
are massive and it was a very difficult challenge

NOVEMBER 2017 www.racecar-engineering.com 27

FORMULA 2 – DALLARA F2/18
Rear wing has been designed
specifically for DRS so this
should be more effective than
that on the current GP2/11,
where DRS was retro-fitted
for us to fit it to the chassis and pass the FIA
crash tests,’ Pignacca adds.
The car seen in the pictures on these pages
is one of those first three chassis built, which
will be used for initial testing but not racing.
‘We have not yet received the definitive Halo,’
Pignacca says. ‘The one on the launch car is a
dummy, but looking at the CAD we believe that
the extra weight due to the device itself and the
mounting points and extra material required
in the chassis is around 10 to 12kg. The F1 guys
have to do the same, but the weight will be a bit
lower as they are using better materials.’
One of the reasons for the uncertainty
surrounding integration of the Halo was down
to the fact that Formula 1 was experimenting
with a partial canopy during the mid part of
2017, and at one time this looked more likely to
be used in both F2 and Formula 1. ‘Going to the
screen was not as difficult as the Halo,’ Pignacca
says. ’As the structure and its design did not
‘One of the reasons we
have a turbocharged
engine was due to the
fact that we wanted to
have something that
really prepared the
drivers for Formula 1’
28 www.racecar-engineering.com NOVEMBER 2017
require such a high proof load. With the screen
we would not have needed to modify the shape
or structure of the monocoque. You would have
to add some brackets and fairings but not much.’
Turbo power
As the chassis design and development was
ongoing, Mecachrome was developing an all
new turbocharged V6 engine to power the
new car. The base 3.4-litre engine made its
race debut in 2016 fitted to the GP3 series cars,
albeit in normally-aspirated trim. In Formula 2
specification with its single turbocharger the
unit delivers 620bhp at 8750rpm.
‘One of the reasons we have a turbocharged
engine in F2 was due to the fact that we wanted
to have something that really prepared the
drivers for Formula 1,’ Perrin says. ’In Formula 1
with the current hybrid power units, you have
a lot of torque. That means that the power
curve of an F1 car now compared to five years
ago is much flatter, and one way to have this,
other than having a hybrid system, is to use a
high capacity engine with a turbo. This is why
we moved to the current engine; we needed a
power curve as close as possible to a F1 power
unit curve. In fact, this engine was defined four
years ago for F2, but the same base unit was also
used for GP3. That has allowed us to check the
base unit to see if it is reliable. It is.’
The reliability of the engine will also be put
to the ultimate test in 2018 when it is fitted to
the new Ginetta LMP1 chassis, although with
some specification differences. ‘The engine
racing in LMP1 will have direct injection and
a different turbo to the Formula 2 car, but is
otherwise the same,’ Perrin says. ‘So that along
with the performance in GP3 this year shows
that this is a very reliable engine. Mecachrome
have done a very good job.’
Perrin’s second biggest objective was
perhaps the hardest for Dallara to achieve;
to ensure the racing was good and that the
cars could pass each other. ‘Overtaking is
very complicated,’ Pignacca says. ‘If I knew
exactly how to design a car so it overtakes
well that would be priceless. It’s not just aero,
it is a combination of things, like the tracks for
example. We know very well that some cars can
race well on some tracks but not on others; the
power, the weight, it all plays a role.’
F1 lookalike
The F2 organisation wanted its racecar to look
like a current Formula 1 car so it features a swept
back front wing, large bargeboards and a low
and wide rear wing, featuring DRS.
‘We can control some of the factors which
influence overtaking,’ says Pignacca. ‘We did a lot
of CFD work to make sure it was no worse than
with the old car which actually works pretty well
in terms of overtaking. So with the new front
and rear wings we ensured that there was no
real difference in the wake of the car. That was
key; the wake of the car and how the following
car reacts to it. The DRS carries over in terms
of the mechanism and it is the most effective
thing at making overtaking happen, that is clear.
Actually, the DRS on this car is more powerful
than the old one. The reason for this is that the
old car was not designed with DRS, the wing
had to be adapted to take it, it was retrofitted,
but this wing is designed specifically to have
DRS, so it is much more effective.’
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FORMULA 2 – DALLARA F2/18
The aero package is significantly more potent than that of the GP2/11
TECH SPEC
Dallara F2/18 Formula 2
Monocoque and Bodywork: Survival cell, sandwich Carbon/
aluminium honeycomb structure made by Dallara. Front and
rear wing, carbon structures made by Dallara. Bodywork,
carbon/Kevlar honeycomb structures.
Engine: V6 3.4-litre single turbocharged Mecachrome engine;
620bhp at 8750rpm; drive-by-wire throttle; rebuild after 8000km;
maximum Torque 600Nm.
Transmission: 6-speed longitudinal Hewland sequential
gearbox with electro-hydraulic command via paddleshift from
steering wheel; ZF SACHS carbon clutch; anti-stall system;
non-hydraulic ramp differential.
Electronics: Magneti Marelli SRG 480 ECU/GCU including
data logging system; Magneti Marelli PDU 12-42 power supply
management unit; CAN data acquisition pre-equipment;
Beacon receiver.
Suspension: Double steel wishbones, pushrod operated, twin
dampers and torsion bars suspension (F) and spring suspension (R);
adjustable ride height, camber and toe; two way (F), four way (R)
adjustable Koni dampers; adjustable anti-roll bar (front/rear).
Steering system: Non-assisted rack and pinion steering system;
XAP steering wheel with dashboard, gear change and clutch paddles,
plus marshalling and VSC display.
Brakes: 6-piston monobloc Brembo callipers; carbon-carbon
brake discs and pads.
Wheels and tyres: F1 2016 standard wheel dimensions; OZ Racing
magnesium rims; F2 specific Pirelli slick/wet tyres.
Fuel cell: FIA Standard Premier FT5 125 litres.
Dimensions: Overall length: 5224mm (was 5065mm); overall width:
1900mm (unchanged); overall height: 1097mm including FOM roll
hoop camera (was 1072mm); wheelbase: 3135mm (was 3120mm).
Weight: 720kg (including driver).
Performance: Acceleration: 0 to 100km/h, 2.90s; 0 to 200 km/h,
6.60s. Maximum speed, 335km/h (Monza aero + DRS); max braking
deceleration -3.5g; max lateral acceleration +/- 3.9g
30 www.racecar-engineering.com NOVEMBER 2017
The aerodynamic package of the F2/18 is
claimed to be significantly more potent than
that of the GP2/11, but the overall performance
is expected to be similar. ‘The brief was also to
improve aerodynamic performance to offset
the weight increase, but the weight penalty is
pretty big so we will not be faster than the old
car,’ Pignacca says. ‘The power level is about
the same but with better torque. Then there
are the tyres. My impression is that these tyres
are better for overtaking than the wide ones
used in F1, but tyres are critical and if you lose
[performance] by locking up, then drivers don’t
take risks for overtaking. I’m quite curious to see
how the tyres work with that extra torque.’
Slick work
As is the case currently, the tyres on the F2/18
will be supplied by Pirelli, and will be the same
size as those used on the GP2/11. ‘We get data
from Dallara, and we saw no reason to change
the size of the tyres,’ Mario Isola, Pirelli’s racing
manager says. ‘I think this is the right size and
I believe we have a good product so there is
no need to make something completely new.
We will have to look and see as there will be
some impact from the new engine. Obviously,
because of the different torque level and the
weight distribution change we will have to do
some fine tuning to get the best product.
‘When we started in Formula 1, it became
very apparent that the torque level had an
impact on the heat level at the rear, especially
on the centre of the tread,’ Isola adds. ‘We had to
modify the profile and the construction so the
tyre could cope with that a bit better. I think we
can transfer that experience to the F2 tyre.’
The third of the objectives for the Dallara
F2/18 was to keep running costs as low as
possible for the teams and that has resulted
in much of the mechanical design of the car
carrying over from the GP2/11.
‘We did not want to make a completely new
car, we wanted to carry over some components
from the old car, for example the hubs,’ Pignacca
says. ‘We are aware that teams are under budget
pressures so we tried to change as few of the
parts as possible to help the teams keep costs
down. The rear dampers, for example, are a
direct carry-over, but the uprights, for instance,
have a slight modification to increase their
life. They are interchangeable with the old
ones, though, so the teams can keep the old
ones as emergency spares. The gearbox main-
case carries over, too, along with the internals,
but the bellhousing has had to be changed
as you would expect to accommodate the
new engine. The rear crash structure is the
same, as is the suspension geometry.’
Switching over
Not everything on the racecar is a carry-over,
of course, with Perrin deciding to make a
significant change and upgrade to the latest
specification electronics package from Magneti
Marelli. ‘It has a lot more potential to introduce
things like electronic marshalling, VSC [virtual
safety car] conditions, and in general there is a
lot more scope for development and upgrade,’
he says. ‘The previous system had about
reached its limit in terms of capability.’
The first F2/18 chassis has completed its
initial track running in private with further tests
scheduled for the winter when teams start to
receive their cars, and there seems to be some
optimism about its performance from those
who created it, even though it may be slower
than the car it replaces. ‘When we specified the
F2 car we believed that the performance level,
in terms of lap time was about right,’ Perrin
says. ‘It’s what we need to prepare drivers for
Formula 1, so we did not ask for a faster car. We
are not looking for the optimum, the last two or
three tenths per lap, we don’t care about that,
all we need is a good tool to prepare the drivers
for Formula 1 at the same time as providing a
good show on track. It’s clear to us that this car
has a lot more development potential than the
old one, and it is more versatile.’
It might not be the F2 first envisaged when
the FIA decided to relaunch the category, but
the Dallara F2/18 is certain to play a key role in
the future careers of many drivers, and indeed
engineers, in the years to come. If it is useful
in this respect, then as a feeder formula car
it will surely be seen as a success.
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INDYCAR – DALLARA DW12 (UAK18)

Style with
substance
The face-lifted 2018 Dallara DW12 IndyCar has been widely praised
for its sharp looks, but it also packs some serious safety and
aero-performance improvements. Racecar took a closer look
By MARSHALL PRUETT

32 www.racecar-engineering.com NOVEMBER 2017


T
he process of remodelling IndyCar’s
Dallara DW12 with new bodywork
for 2018 goes well beyond a
beautification project that was long
overdue. For hidden beneath the new panels
that surround the 2012-era tub, wholesale
changes to driver protection materials and
methodology have also been made.
Externally, a reversal of the DW12’s sidepod
layout with the upcoming UAK18 (universal aero
kit 2018) has produced a proper ‘Coke bottle’
profile. Unlike the stock Dallara DW12 sidepods
(2012-2014) and custom Chevrolet and Honda
aero kits that replaced it (2015-2017), the UAK18
will now employ a wide structure alongside its
drivers that provides ample structure to crush.
IndyCar aerodynamic director Tino Belli,
charged with the overall rethink on the DW12’s
UAK18 kit, performance levels, and safety
improvements, talked Racecar through the
formidable redesign process that will keep
the chassis in service through to at least the
2020 season. ‘When it became clear that we
were going to do new bodywork, [IndyCar
engineering director] Jeff Horton said that
we should work to improve the side impact
structure beside the monocoque because it
had been a little bit of an Achilles’ heel with the
DW12 from the beginning,’ Belli says.
Side impact
The problem was that with the narrow radiator
inlets next to the cockpit feeding oil and water
coolers positioned almost parallel with the
DW12’s rearmost bulkhead, the vertical walls
enclosing each driver were asked to withstand
an impact with minimal g deceleration.
Injuries suffered by Sebastien Bourdais in
2012 and Justin Wilson in 2013, where heavy
objects pushed in a cockpit wall, led to the series
‘When it became clear
that we were going to
do new bodywork we
said that we should
work to improve the
side impact structure’
Improving the aesthetics of the five-year-old
DW12 design was a priority with the UAK18
bodykit. Road course package is shown
mandating more cladding with Zylon panels
for 2014. Strengthening the cockpit ring was
also completed to bolster the primary aperture
against deformation. Faced with adding more
Zylon and more weight to address the problem,
Belli, Horton, and Dallara took a clean-sheet
approach to the UAK18’s sidepods.
‘Part of our requirement immediately was
we wanted to move the radiators forward for
aerodynamic reasons but also to get them in
to help absorb some energy in the side impact,’
Belli says. ‘Dallara did do some side impact tests
on radiators full of water at a FIA-sanctioned
crash testing station in Turin. And Jeff
determined that although the tests look
quite spectacular, the video looks spectacular,
the energy absorption from the radiator on
its own was not sufficient.
‘We had the accelerations you got from the
radiator. And really the radiator crushes too fast
NOVEMBER 2017 www.racecar-engineering.com 33
INDYCAR – DALLARA DW12 (UAK18)
New road course aero package is capable of generating 5300lbs of downforce, which is a step down from the amount generated by the manufacturer kits; around the 6800lb region
and then gives you a high peak right at the
very end of the crash; obviously the art of
energy absorption is to try and avoid the
high peak g-loading. You really want a nice,
steady, even peak g-loading.
‘So Jeff concluded that that wasn’t sufficient,’
Belli adds. ‘He was pretty sure before we did
that test that that would be the case. The other
problem you often have with just radiators is,
in a pure side impact, they crush, but when you
get slight oblique impact they just lay over. That
really doesn’t do you any good whatsoever.
‘Then we took the FIA side impact criteria.
We adjusted them a little bit to the higher loads
that we see. Then we asked Dallara to design
the leading edge of the sidepod so that it would
absorb more loading to satisfy the FIA tests.
‘One of the [different things] that we did
here, was when an engineer picks up, you give
him test criteria. [He will] then design just to
pass that test, so you’re once again back into
pure side impact, and the structure, which is
basically the top of the side part, would’ve acted
perfectly. But if you had a slight angle to the
impact, up or down or forwards or backwards,
it would probably just take that structure and
snap it off, which we wanted to avoid.’
Crushable structure
Dallara’s UAK18 solution was to create a large,
dense, leading-edge sidepod structure to
be retrofitted, that will compress and act as
a proper crushable structure. Repositioned
radiators, which now fall in line with the
‘We’ve tried to put as much load as we can into the dash bulkhead,
into the seat-back bulkhead, and then into the floor of the tub’
34 www.racecar-engineering.com NOVEMBER 2017
driver’s upper torso, will also help to dissipate
the energy in an impact. The u-shape UAK18
sidepod structures replace the crushable ‘teeth’
that were used throughout 2017.
‘So we had a meeting in May before the
Indy 500,’Belli says. “[IndyCar doctor] Dr Terry
Trammell, Jeff, myself, [IndyCar colleague] Bill
Pappas, where we instructed Dallara that we
wanted the side impact structure that they
had designed for the top bonded to the
bodywork that goes on the side, and come
all the way down into the feed load, into the
lower skin of floor of the tub.
‘And that’s what we have,’ Belli adds. ‘We’ve
tried to put as much load as we can into the
dash bulkhead, into the seat-back bulkhead and
then into the floor of the tub. So that if the car
gets up and hits at a bit of an angle, which does
happen, we just wanted as good a structure for
different directions of impact.’
Crash testing
Rigorous side impact crash testing for the
UAK18 will now become standard fare, too.
‘What we will plan to do, and we haven’t done it
yet because you’re always battling time, is to do
the side impact tests from a number of angles,’
Belli says. ‘And then over the next year or two we
will be comparing test results vs actual results.
Which should give us a much better picture of
what we need to achieve when we do our next
racecar. It’s a constant evolution.’
The DW12’s new sidepods are a maze of
packaging and multi-purpose serving of needs.
Walls separating the radiators from the tub
are used to feed air and cooling to the 2.2-litre
twin-turbo V6 engine and various electronics.
The radiator ducting also carries miscellaneous
electronic boxes as safety, heat rejection, drag,
and downforce intermingle.
Pipe dream
‘At one time we were going to have a common
turbo inlet duct and a common filter, turbo,
pre-turbo filter,’ Belli reveals. ‘But to not add a
lot of cost on the engine side, we didn’t want
to relocate the positions of the turbos. The
difference is, Honda has a turbo which is quite
forward and low and Chevy has one which is
mid-engine and a bit higher.
‘We came to the conclusion very early on
that it was going to be almost impossible. So
the inlet to the turbo and the water piping and
the oil piping are the lifeblood of the engine
as Marvin Riley, our engine director, says. He
thought it was better to allow the engine
manufacturers to design their own lifeblood.
‘We left a gap between the radiator and
the side of the monocoque and we said, “Hey
your turbo inlet has to come through this gap.”
And then we also specified that the turbo inlet
mustn’t be visible, when looking at the car from
the side. With no shuttering on the radiator inlet,’
Belli says. ‘We did that because we didn’t want
them making the turbo inlet come all the way
down to the front suspension.
‘After that, they’re responsible for the
cooling of their electronics which fits behind
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INDYCAR – DALLARA DW12 (UAK18)

Dallara created a large leading-edge sidepod design that will compress and act as a crushable structure. Repositioned radiators, designed to be in line with the race driver’s upper
torso, will also help to dissipate energy in an impact. New sidepods are now packed with parts, while walls between the sidepods and the tub are used to channel cooling air to engine

the radiator instead of beside the radiator.’ Belli
adds. ‘And they have to take the air for cooling of
the electronics and for the turbo inlet through
this gap that we gave them down the side of the
radiator and tub. So as of now we don’t know
that it’ll be amalgamated with the engine. The
designs are not final. [This is] something you will
see probably in the New Year.’
Aero tweaks
Ridding the DW12 of its limited visual appeal
was the first priority for IndyCar. Second came
the desire to carve a significant amount of
potential downforce from what the Chevy and
Honda aero kits produced. With side impact
improvements duly made, and the overall look
of the car vastly enhanced, Belli and Dallara
went to work on the UAK18’s aero performance
in and around the new sidepods.
‘The interesting thing is, in moving the
radiators forward we’ve got a much gentler
Coke feed in the back of the diffuser,’ Belli says.
‘Initially, without the tyre ramps that Coke
shape actually didn’t work very well. When we
re-introduced the tyre ramps, which we needed
to do on the super speedways for drag because
we’re trying to hit similar speeds in qualifying
to what we have now, maybe a little bit slower,
they energised that Coke shape.
‘They push the air down, up over the
underwing and then the efficiency of the car
was very, very good,’ Belli adds. ‘And removing
the rear wheel guards, that was a significant
drag increase. So hitting that drag number was
probably our hardest target. When we put the
tyre ramps back in, in fact, in speedway format,
it was too efficient early on. The car would
have been too easy to drive in the race. Our
target for Indy was to keep it the same. I think
we had very interesting, very competitive
exciting racing there. We had to play around to
get those numbers to be the same.’
Maximum road course downforce for the
Chevy kit, which topped the Honda by a modest
margin, came in at 6826lbs, according to a
leading race engineer with knowledge of both
of the kits. Restoring lift/drag sanity was always
on the cards for the UAK18.
Clipped wings
‘The maximum downforce for the car, we really
wanted to bring it down and we targeted
5000lbs,’ Belli says. ‘It’s capable of 5300 with
everything. We had a bit of luxury in that area
that we could generate more downforce from
the floor. So we filled in the hole near the
leading edge behind the front tyre which had
been introduced with the aero kits. Mainly
because the manufacturers have done a better
job than anticipated and we had to take some
downforce away from them. And we had the
luxury of putting the strakes and the sidewalls
back in because once again, we took them
away for the aero kits because their numbers
were really just way too good. We managed to
put a lot more downforce onto the floor.’

‘Front road course flaps are about 73 per cent the size of current flaps’
36 www.racecar-engineering.com NOVEMBER 2017
Exhibiting at:

Exhibiting at:
INDYCAR – DALLARA DW12 (UAK18)

Top pictures: The difference between the sidepod leading edge treatment on this year’s version of the DW12 (left) and the new bodykit. Bottom two pictures show the super speedway
configuration of the new and old (top) kits. IndyCar was pleased with the way the racecar performed at the Indianapolis 500 this year and wanted to retain a similar aero performance

Adjustments to the sizing with some of
the topside wings helped pare the downforces
and drag figures down to IndyCar’s new goal.
‘The front road course flaps are about 73 per
cent the size of the current ones,’ Belli says. ‘The
rear one’s a lot smaller. We’ve used things like
that. Obviously we had the ability, because we
write the rules. We widened the rear wing a
little bit, which is always good. Aspect ratio’s
always good. We widened the front wing main
plane flaps a little bit to try and get the front
downforce without so much flap angle.
‘We lost a little bit off the front,’ Belli adds.
‘We raised the endplates a little bit because
we’d been wearing them away and we wanted
to reduce the amount of wear that we get on
them. So they’re a little bit higher next year.
It was playing with all those bits and pieces.
Essentially the car, in road course trim ,if you
look at the efficiency line, the L over D line, it’s
identical. It’s identical until you get to maximum
downforce and then you just can’t quite get as
much maximum downforce out of it as you did
with the manufacturer aero kits.’
In concert with changes to the floor in
road course configuration, the rebalancing of
downforce has boosted top speeds by as much
as 10mph. Despite the slower cornering speeds
due to losing more than 1500lbs of downforce,
the straightline gains have kept lap times nearly
identical to the DW12 in 2017 trim.
‘The thing that happened with the DW12
when it first came out was the underwing was
widened to the maximum width of the car to
try and prevent interlocking wheels, which I
think it’s been very successful at,’ Belli says. ‘As a
consequence of that, the way the car produces
its downforce is not with very high amounts of
suction. It’s been quite low amounts of suction
but on a large area. I wasn’t around when
the DW12 was conceived, so I don’t know if
it was intentionally conceived that way. But

38 www.racecar-engineering.com NOVEMBER 2017

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INDYCAR – DALLARA DW12 (UAK18)

‘Right from the beginning we have been considering the aeroscreen

and making sure that aerodynamically it is adaptable to this car’
it’s produced a very benign car. I think a lot of
that is down to a large area and not very low
coefficients of pressure on the floor of the car.
When we opened up the hole in the floor for
basically the 5-degree nose-up condition [test]
in the back flips of Indy, we noticed that we
really didn’t lose anywhere near the amount of
downforce that we were expecting to lose. Part
of that is because the floor is so wide and long
at the front that the underwing wasn’t really
sucking through and using that as a proper
diffuser. The DW12 floor is also low; lower to
the ground at the front than it used to be with
the previous Dallara chassis.’
Choke point
Beneath the new side impact structures,
IndyCar has inserted a diffuser into the revised
forward floor section – where the large hole will
be used on the superspeedways – to re-energize
the air. ‘Part of that is just that the wide floor of
the front is choking,’ Belli says. ‘So by adding that
slot [we can] get some of that air out of there,
and pull the air through that front part, the front
part of the floor is working a lot harder. That
was an objective that we had. We wanted to
try and get as much front downforce from the
underwing as we could within the constraints
of using the same underwing. And therefore
reduce the inter-dependency on the front wing.’
With the UAK18’s fresh forward floor,
sidepods and crush structures sorted, the final
area of exploration has come with IndyCar’s
development of an aeroscreen for the car.
Ongoing plans to test the DW12-specific
solution remain; whether it will be approved for
competition is another matter.
Screen saver
‘Dr Trammell and Jeff Horton have obviously
investigated [different solutions], as they’re
part of the safety commission that they work
with in Europe,’ Belli says. ‘So they have looked
obviously very hard at the Halo. And they’ve also
looked at aeroscreens, and have come to the
conclusion that in our situation, an aeroscreen is
a better possible solution for us.
‘So, right from the beginning of the UAK18
kit, we have been considering the aeroscreen
and making sure that aerodynamically it is
adaptable to this car. We tested it in the winter.
One of the good reasons for moving the air
intake from the roll hoop area to the cockpit,
to the inlet ducts, the radiator inlet duct area, is
obviously the aero screen is less likely to affect
the airflow into the engine. And it obviously
doesn’t affect it at all on the UAK18.’
Issues with air curling over the top of the
aeroscreen and building pressure behind the
driver’s helmet is the current dilemma to solve.
‘We have done CFD studies on helmet buffeting
and head pushing, so we were not surprised
when F1 tested it on [Sebastian] Vettel’s car and
his [head] had pushed forward,’ Belli says. ‘We’re
currently working on helmet solutions to fix that
problem. In Indy configuration we check the car
five degrees nose up, nine degrees of yaw, 135
degrees yaw, 180 degrees of yaw. We checked
those configurations to make sure that we
haven’t lost stability in any of them.
‘From that point of view we’re okay to go.
Jeff has checked the visibility of the windscreen
in the simulator. And the next phase is to get
it on a car and start track testing it. Obviously,
there’s still quite a few checks and balances that
have to be done on a system like that. You’ve
got reflections, you have fogging, oil, water,
racing at night under the lights, going from dusk
to dark. We need to make sure that we have a
handle on them before we press the button
on that proposed project,’ Belli says.

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WRC – HYUNDAI I20 ENGINE
Seoul
music
Hyundai’s rasping WRC powerplant has
impressed this season, powering the
i20 to three victories. Racecar traces
the development of the Korean firm’s
first wholly in-house built engine
By MARTIN SHARP
42 www.racecar-engineering.com NOVEMBER 2017
H
yundai’s time-scale for setting up its
motorsport operation was nothing
if not ambitious. Announced at the
Paris Motor Show in October 2012,
the budget allocation was in place when team
principal Michel Nandan joined the company
in January 2013. At that time building work was
just under way at the Alzenau, Germany HQ.
An i20 World Rally Car had already been
designed and built at Hyundai’s Research and
Development Centre in Samyang, South Korea,
and, as more Hyundai Motorsport employees
were taken on at Alzenau, major revisions to
evolve this car took place in Germany; ostensibly
to improve reliability and component access,
but also to aid its competitiveness.
But the Korean company’s stated intention
had always been to create an autonomous

The new engine is adapted to
suit the increased inlet restrictor
diameter, meaning combustion
chambers and pistons are different
motorsport facility at Alzenau. The plan
involved the entire design and manufacture
of its World Rally Cars under one roof. This
objective encompassed the WRC engine, too,
but in the very short time available between
early establishment of the HQ and the first i20
WRC’s debut rally, available engine engineering
personnel and facilities were lacking.
Which is why the first engine development
was therefore undertaken at Hyundai’s Samyang
R&D base. This powerplant was then honed to
world rally competitiveness in Alzenau, through
three initial iterations before homologation of
the fourth version, by Hyundai Motorsport’s
fledgling engine department under its then-
boss Stephane Girard, who joined the operation
in April 2013. Girard is a highly-regarded engine
engineer, who started with Citroen Sport, then
Hyundai’s 1600cc turbocharged engine was built
for the new-for-2017 WRC regulations. It produces
380bhp at 6500rpm and 450Nm of torque
SARAH VESSELY, HYUNDAI MOTORSPORT
moved to Prodrive and went to Hyundai after
five years experience of working on Peugeot
Sport’s LMP1 engines. By November 2013 he
had six people working for him in the Hyundai
Motorsport engine department and was actively
recruiting to at least double this headcount.
To begin with Girard worked with the
Research and Development department in
South Korea, but more closely still with Hyundai
Motorsport’s French partner, Pipo Moteurs – ‘for
reasons of logistics,’ Girard said back in 2013.
Early days
At that time there was no exact timing to get
the engine department fully up and running
with Girard more concerned with not rushing
the process, as he said then: ‘I don’t want to
rush anything on that – it’s easy to rush and
make a mistake, so as it is a long-term project
we are building up slowly.’
During these early days of engine
development Girard spent one-third of his time
at Alzenau, one-third testing and one-third at
Pipo. Team Principal Michel Nandan says of that
time: ‘In fact, for the engine of the first car we
asked for the help of Pipo Moteurs because I
had only Stephane [Girard] and a few guys to do
proper engine engineering and we had no dyno;
we had nothing, so it was the only way to get a
competitive engine quickly.’
Just 12 months after starting with effectively
a clean sheet of paper, the new team went into
its first WRC season, in 2014. Podiums in Mexico,
Poland and a one-two in Germany indicated that
things were heading in the right direction.
The following season, 2015, saw the team
take podiums in Sweden, Sardinia and Spain
while Hyundai just missed out on second place
in netting third in the manufacturer rankings.
The Hy’ life
But that first engine was to last just two years, as
the New Generation i20 road car would appear
for 2016 and a completely revised power unit
was planned for the first New Generation World
Rally Car. This was developed during 2015 by the
Alzenau engine department, once again also in
collaboration with Pipo Moteurs.
Straight out of the box, on the first rally of the
season, Monte Carlo, there was a debut podium.
Hayden Padden then dominated Argentina,
scoring the New Generation car’s maiden win.
Then Thierry Neuville took the new car to
victory in Sardinia. In total two victories, 12
podiums and 47 stage wins for the year boded
well for the next new car built to the all-new
2017 FIA WRC technical regulations.
Between the end of 2015 and the beginning
of 2016 the team installed its first engine
dynamometer test cell, then a year later a second
dyno unit was installed; this one being equipped
with altitude/climate simulation facilities.
Around the same time as the appearance of the
second dyno the entire engine department was
up to speed, with six engine engineers, seven
workshop personnel and the personnel to run
the dynos; in total around 25 people.
To give scope for Hyundai Motorsport to
develop the 2017 WRC engine in-house, build
work of 2016 engines became split between
Alzenau and Pipo, with Pipo doing six event
units, Alzenau six, and so on. But all the 2017
engine development work was done at Alzenau.
By 2017, Hyundai’s objective of taking full
control of its engine development was achieved,
with all engine development and assembly
for this year’s three-door i20 Coupe WRC now
completed in-house. Having hit this objective,
engine department boss Girard then decided to
take up an offer from ORECA in France to head-
up its engine department.
Hyundai team principal Nandan is very
happy with all the work Girard had contributed
NOVEMBER 2017 www.racecar-engineering.com 43
WRC – HYUNDAI I20 ENGINE

The new powerplant has been effective – a win on Rally Poland one of three victories for the i20 in 2017, at time of writing Michel Nandan says engine development is ongoing

to the team effort but, with Girard’s family living
in France and him working in Germany, Nandan
fully appreciates his desire for better family
arrangements. Julien Moncet now heads-up the
engine department, having joined Girard’s early
engine team from Toyota’s F1 programme.
Hyundai is not totally on its own with its
engine, though, and Pipo is still involved with
the operation; completing a limited amount of
parallel work on the 2017 WRC engine, while
also building Hyundai Motorsport’s customer
R5 engines and its TCR engines.
New formula
The 2017 Coupe WRC car is, naturally, a new
homologation and its 36mm inlet-restricted
engine (which is up from 33mm on the previous
WRC units) is said to be a ‘completely new’
design; although using the bore and stroke
of the 2016 unit, so components such as the
Corridors of power
crankshaft and connecting rods could be carried
over to the current engine.
While the cylinder block exhibits some
similarities to that used in 2016, the machined
from solid alloy unit is a new design, optimised
to integrate components and reduce weight.
Of course, the new engine is adapted to suit
the increased inlet restrictor diameter, meaning
combustion chambers and pistons are different,
as is valve lift and geometry.
The very first i20 WRC engine ran with
Magneti Marelli fuel injectors, but Bosch units
were installed for the new engines in 2016
and for this year, managed by Magneti Marelli
electronics. Nandan explains: ‘We compared
both together and we still compare both types
in order to get the best choice, and on last
year’s engine we had Bosch … and we still
selected Bosch ones [this year] because we had
better performance with them.’
With the restrictor change for 2017 comes a
new Garrett turbocharger. By allowing more air
to mix with fuel in the combustion chambers a
more volatile mixture is produced. But the FIA
rules have not changed the maximum allowed
2.5bar absolute WRC boost pressure. The net
result is more maximum power at higher rpm
but no big change in maximum torque figure.
Both maxima are produced higher in the rpm
range; but just slightly higher than before for
the torque, while max power is rather further
up the range. A less ‘driveable’ power curve for
most WRC engines is the result.
Nandan says: ‘It’s true that in the beginning
the drivers were not really used to using the
higher rpm, so yes they had to get used [to
it] because in the end you can’t really change
anything – it’s due to the restrictor size. The
only thing we were trying, was to try to get a
still wider range of the torque, in order that it
is much easier to use it. But for sure the fact
that they have to go higher in rpm, then it is
more [up to] the drivers to [adapt to] that [than
adapting the rpm range].’

H
yundai’s Alzenau-based in-
house engine department
comprises engine
engineers and designers and, of
course, engine builders.
Building a complete new
engine requires about a week’s
work, but then post-event rebuilds
can take around the same time. In
After each rally the engines are fully stripped down at Hyundai’s Alzenau HQ
addition to the dedicated engine
build team, engine department
staff at Alzenau remain on-site
during tests and rally weekends
constantly monitoring and
analysing the performance of
the power units. These people
deal with any real-time issues
arising, while also feeding back to
colleagues on the event any
improvements that may
be of benefit to the team.
Sometimes there are just two
weeks between WRC rallies, so
post-event engine rebuilds must
be both swift and methodical.
The process is a full strip-
down, a check, and then all the
consumables are replaced. Here,
liaison between the team’s parts
manager and its purchasing
department is crucial to ensuring
that the correct engine parts are
available at the right time to be
fitted within the very tight time
schedules the WRC demands.
Once complete, a just-built
or rebuilt engine will go to the
dynamometer for checking, then
back to the engine workshop for a
final pre-event check.
Development
Nandan also says that his engine team is
constantly working on improvements. A July
joker saw the introduction of a revised, more
durable, exhaust manifold after earlier cracking
problems were identified. Then, for Rally
Germany in August, another engine joker was
spent on revised Bosch injectors with different
spray patterns. This improved power, and the
nature of the engine’s curve.
Thus far the engine has powered Neuville
to three WRC victories (in Corsica, Argentina
and Poland) and at the time of writing the
Belgian driver was second in the World Rally
Championship, while Hyundai was also lying in
second place in the teams’ standings.
For Rally Spain in October a third engine
joker is planned. At press time it’s work in
progress, but the intention is to improve
combustion further, most specifically
through changes to piston design.

44 www.racecar-engineering.com NOVEMBER 2017

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BAJA 1000 – SAFETY
When the
dust settles
How one man’s terrifying experience changed
the approach to safety on one of the toughest
motorsport adventures of them all – the Baja 1000
By DON TAYLOR
S
ome accidents change a competitor’s
attitude to motorsport safety forever.
Here’s the incident in 2010 that did
it for Roger Norman, then a Trophy
Truck racer in the Baja 1000:
‘I was running at 120mph and he [a
motorcyclist] was going about 25mph. I was
getting ready to pass two other Trophy Trucks.
He thought it was clear because two trucks went
by, and he didn’t realise that there was a third
truck that was going way faster than the first
two. And I hit him … I only saw him for maybe a
half second, not enough time do anything on a
narrow dirt road … [I] knew he was dead.’
A sobering incident, but before we look at
the implications, a little Baja background might
be in order. In a world of ever-safer racecars
and carefully architected circuits with generous
46 www.racecar-engineering.com NOVEMBER 2017
run-off areas, The Baja 1000 is one of those crazy
motorsport throwbacks, like say, the Isle of Man
TT, that you sometimes can’t quite believe still
take place. It is a non-stop, all-out run down
the Baja peninsula of Mexico, a thousand miles
through the desert. It was started by a group
of adventurous California enthusiasts and this
November will mark the annual contest’s 50th
consecutive running (see box out).
Desert dust-up
Last year, 26 classes competed, with the
participants aged from 16 to 79-years-old. That
added up to more than 1100 drivers, co-drivers,
and riders taking part, with some of them
sharing driving stints, while others did it Iron
Man style, without relief. The vehicles include
a wide variety of trucks, buggies, ATVs, UTVs
(Utility Terrain Vehicles), quads and motorcycles,
broadly varying in size, weight, and speed.
With a low barrier to entry, people can take
their old motorcycle or UTV and join in. There
are some riders and drivers coming over with
Dakar experience and many from other forms of
racing give it a try as well. But compared to the
Dakar Rally, this event is a non-stop, non-staged
affair that runs through the night, over terrain
that often requires plenty of suspension travel.
The route is changed from year to year,
making every race different. There is a time limit,
set at 36 hours in 2016. That year it took about
17 straight hours of non-stop driving to win.
For decades the Baja races have been
sanctioned by SCORE-International (Southern
California Off Road Events). The storied Baja
1000 is the Big Kahuna of the annual SCORE

Lights and sirens are often lost in
the huge dust clouds and engine noise
series, which is bundled with a handful of other,
shorter desert races, also in Mexico.
As Norman, who is now the owner of SCORE,
says: ‘Our races are unique and very dangerous.
Every single race mile is different. We’ve had
racecars go into the ocean, 27ft under water.
We’ve had racecars go off 300ft cliffs.’
And it’s had trucks hitting bikes, as we learnt
in the opening to this piece. So what happened
next? Well, the rider was not dead after all, to
Norman’s immense relief and surprise. Norman
was able to get him evacuated by helicopter
and then to hospital. The rider did fully recover,
a major achievement for the man, considering
he endured the mending of 28 broken bones
and underwent some 30 surgeries.
But while Norman was physically unharmed
in the incident, it certainly had an impact. ‘The
accident with the sportsman motorcycle rider
in the dust shook me to the core. I have been
devastated and demoralised since Saturday’s
race,’ he told fellow competitors at the time.
‘I can tell you that until you run someone
over, while in the dust of another Trophy
Truck, at over 100mph, you will simply not
understand the devastating feeling.
‘The next guy will not be so lucky, and I
want to avoid any of you from having this
pain and fear I have felt,’ Norman added. ‘The
incident could have happened to any one of
us, and unless we do something to force the
issue, then nothing will be done.’
Loving the sport as much as he does,
Norman continued to race in the Baja for several
years, but was now consumed with the goal of
improving its safety, while he and the downed
Trucks mix it with bikes and quads
on the Baja. This has led to fatalities
in the past but now the race organiser
has brought in new safety measures
rider, Tim Nugent, became best friends, with a
shared purpose. ‘He and I tried to change the
sport, not to change the tradition of the sport,
but to figure out a way to make it safer … And
we were not successful,’ Norman says.
Wealth and safety
They made a lot of noise, but little changed, as
most participants liked the spirit and tradition
of a wild-ass event of few rules and restrictions,
a real test of man against the elements, in a
country not known for road safety.
And then, with long-time SCORE owner/
promoter Sal Fish retiring in 2013, SCORE, and
the Baja 1000, was up for sale. Norman, a real
estate development entrepreneur in everyday
life, saw an opportunity. He saw an opening to
grow the series, and perhaps more importantly,
NOVEMBER 2017 www.racecar-engineering.com 47
BAJA 1000 – SAFETY
‘We’ve had racecars go into the ocean and finish up 27ft
under water. We’ve also had some cars go off 300ft cliffs’
finally be in the position to make it safer. ‘How
do you fix it?’ Norman says. ‘You buy it, and then
make the changes. I had to buy it to fix it.
‘We have a lot of challenges when it
comes to safety, and making changes without
changing the tradition of the sport, and not
ruining what made it great,’ Norman adds.
With the takeover completed in December
2013, in addition to all the challenges of
transforming himself from racer into series
owner, operator, promoter, and sanctioning
body head, the question then became: where
do we start on improving safety?
For an engineer, the first response may be
to take a mechanical approach, engineering
a solution to a problem such as developing
the Halo for open cockpit cars, a stronger
It takes at least 17 hours or so to complete the Baja so some night driving is inevitable – which explains all those spotlights
It can be difficult to see other, sometimes vulnerable, competitors such as bikers in the dust that’s thrown up during the Baja
48 www.racecar-engineering.com NOVEMBER 2017
chassis structure, better energy absorbing
zones and materials, or adding protection from
penetration, all aided by data gathered from
crash recorders and test sleds.
Motorsport’s safety improvements in recent
decades have been driver protection centric,
physically protecting the driver within a safety
capsule, reducing extreme forces from reaching
the driver, though while also protecting the
spectators with walls and fences. But in off-road
racing the safety challenges are different.
Desert dangers
Generally, today’s caged, four-wheel, desert
racing vehicles are relatively safe as they are, at
least for the drivers. Their rollover protection,
seats, and belts have evolved to be very
protective. Appropriate driver safety gear is
mandated, including a frontal head restraint.
In fact, Norman tells us: ‘There have only ever
been three deaths in roll-caged vehicles in
the Baja, over these last 49 years.’
But motorcycles and quads cannot
incorporate the same driver protection, and
he admits: ‘A lot of the deaths come from
motorcycles, spectators, and chase trucks.’
So attention was given first to those three
groups. In those areas, realistically, few of the
safety problems could be solved by mechanical/
hardware means. But rather, SCORE’s approach
was through assessing the overall situation,
and with the use of electronics, social media,
plus the old standby of common sense, new
sporting rules, and penalties.
For example, in addressing the problem
of motorcycles being overtaken by faster,
four-wheeled vehicles, stricter rules were
the first action taken. It became mandatory
that motorcycles had to let faster vehicles
pass, under threat of a penalty.
‘If any of the motorcycle racers caused a
problem, with not moving out of the way, that
would be a disqualification,’ Norman says. ‘When
I was racing, I would come up on motorcycles,
and I would literally be one foot off of their rear
tyre at 90mph for 20 miles … and this would
be near the finish line in La Paz, after I’ve been
driving for 19 hours, without getting out of the
car, and I’m not at my sharpest, and neither is
he. But now we have a reason for him to get
out of the way, because all I have to do now, if
I was racing, is get his number, and he’s done.’
Meaning the rider is disqualified.
Dust to dust
This year SCORE has also adopted an electronic
technology solution, with the use of the Stella
III, which is a GPS tracker, as well as a vehicle-
to-vehicle signalling device. This is a product
developed for off-road and rally racing by
Anube Sport America. It radically reduces the
unknowns in the passing of motorcycles, but
also for passing any other slower competitor,
as every vehicle racing, large or small, fast or
slow, must be so equipped.
Basically, Stella III is a dash-mounted box
with lights and buttons that has the ability to
send basic messages between vehicles, be
used for tracking and scoring, and, if necessary,
it can send an SOS to race control.
Norman says: ‘There’s a blue button that
allows you to warn the person ahead of you
that you’re passing, and if they, say, are on a
motorcycle then they have to get out of the way.
So if they hit their blue button, basically they’re
saying they’re clear, they’re off the course, go!
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BAJA 1000 – SAFETY
get out of the way. You just have to prove you’re
actually fast enough to get by them.’
In that case the traditional ‘I want to pass
you’ signal, which is to give a stiff love tap to
the other car’s rear bumper, can be used. This
is actually often necessary as lights and sirens,
which are also used as alerts, are lost in the huge
dust clouds and the engine noise.
The Stella 3 can also tell approaching racers
if there’s another vehicle stopped up ahead, or if
they are about to enter a limited-speed zone, so
they can prepare to slow down.
As for chase vehicle safety, new guidelines
are also in place regarding driver and crew
behaviour, with the possible consequence of
team disqualification if they’re not followed.
But it’s not just vulnerable competitors
and support crews that need protection,
there are the Baja spectators to think about,
too. Providing spectator safety is critical in all
types of racing, and the responsibility lies with
everyone involved in conducting the event.
What makes this a little challenging on the
Baja is that the spectators have been known
‘There’s a blue button that
allows you to warn the
person ahead of you
that you are passing’
The spectators are in a safe area here as they watch a Trophy
Truck fly, but that’s not always the case over a 1000 mile course
When then truck racer Roger Norman (left) hit motorcyclist Tim
Nugent (right) in 2010 his attitude to safety on the Baja changed
50 www.racecar-engineering.com NOVEMBER 2017
to get a little actively engaged, and while in
Formula E fans might vote for a favourite driver
to get more power-to-pass, Baja racing fans are
much more hands on. Literally.
Norman says: ‘Our spectators are interactive.
It’s not like at other sporting events, where
the spectators are just sitting there in seats
watching, our spectators like to get involved,
and help make jumps to make the racing
more exciting, or dig ditches, or pull some old
junk car out on to the course. You have to deal
with booby traps. Crazy things like that have
happened.’ You can also add to that the chance
of encountering a large farm animal.
Matador madness
With 1000 miles of track you can’t provide
a continuous barrier, of course. At the Baja
start and finish line areas, spectator fences are
erected. But elsewhere spectators can stand
at the edge of the course or even right on it,
playing a game of chicken, messing with the
drivers and riders. Much like The Running of the
Bulls in Pamplona, the goal is to move out of
the way at the last instant, while touching the
speeding beast as it goes by. Except in this case
the bull is a 7000lb race truck.
Besides digging holes, and placing obstacles
on the course, fans can also become engaged by
moving the directional signs along the course,
trying to lead drivers astray (though this is much
less effective in these days of GPS).
What has SCORE done to discourage these
dangerous shenanigans? As mentioned, walls
are out, and you can’t post marshals every
hundred metres. But one tool SCORE uses
comes from the soft sciences, and that is using
social media for education and for peer pressure.
‘We do a lot of things on social media, like
videos where our racers are talking about
safety and asking the fans to stay off the course,’
Norman says. ‘It’s helped a lot.’
He adds: ‘We’ve created a group called
Afficiano Responsible. It has about 12,000
members all throughout Baja.’ The campaign is
basically “Don’t do something stupid”, reinforced
Baja race trucks pack sturdy cages. There have been just three fatalities in caged vehicles over past 49 years
by the serious fans of the sport. ‘They post the
dumb things that happen at each race and
make fun of the idiots who are doing these
stupid things,’ Norman says. ‘So it’s made it very
unpopular to be an idiot in Baja, and that’s done
an awful lot, just by people seeing this, and by
promoting that these people are not cool. It’s
not cool to do that kind of stuff.
‘Of course, what happens, happens in the
middle of nowhere, and no one has control
of people out there. But fortunately more
people are taking it on themselves to be much
more respectful of the racecars.’
The Baja region does appreciate having the
race, with the business and exposure it brings,
though, and that helps. ‘We’re getting a lot
more help from the military, and the police,
federal, state and local agencies down there.
We have about 20 meetings now, per race,
regarding safety,’ Norman says.
To help control spectators, unlike in the past,
there are also now enforceable laws against
interfering with the race course and vehicles.
Emergency cover
Improving medical resources and responses
has also been a high priority for Norman. ‘We
want to provide medical, life, and unlimited
para-medivac service,’ he says. ‘When we started
this, we found out that every ambulance had
less-than-basic life support. When I was a racer, I
thought, that’s great, they’ve got an ambulance
there. Then when I took over, I found out that
the guy who was getting the money for it, was
just taking the money, and they didn’t have
anything to save a life, not even a Band-Aid.’
As soon as he took charge Norman made it a
priority to upgrade all of the ambulances to
provide life support capability.
Emergency response is now centred around
Cruz Roja, the Mexican version of the Red Cross,
and its volunteers, who also cover the public
roads. Each unit on average responds to two
head-on collisions per month, keeping them
on top of their game. Many of the Cruz Roja
units had no Jaws-of-Life rescue tools, so
BAJA 1000 – SAFETY

SCORE bought them dozens. ‘The nice thing is
anything we buy them saves lives throughout all
the year. It’s not like we’re just buying it just for
our organisation,’ says Norman.
Norman’s personal paramedic from when
he was racing, plus many other volunteers, also
come down from the US to assist Cruz Roja in
training workers before events.
‘We have a rescue helicopter, we have
a rescue airplane, and we have about 23
ambulances. But it can be an hour for someone
to get to you, especially at night, because
nobody’s allowed to fly at night, by law.’
To help themselves after an incident –
before other assistance arrives – all teams are
required to carry emergency signalling devices,
survival supplies, and a first aid kit aboard their
vehicle. But the first one on the scene is most
often another competitor and one of the many
things that Norman has implemented is a Good
Samaritan rule. When other teams stop and
render service to downed riders or crashed
trucks there is no penalty for lost time. There is
an adjustment made to their total elapsed time.
Roadside assistance
That provides an incentive for racers to stop,
and with the Stella III system, Race Control
knows pretty quickly who had the problem, who
stopped to assist, and for how long. ‘We know
within five to ten minutes what we are crediting
those people. That allows teams to not worry
about stopping, because it’s a timed event.
Every race we have one or two cars stop to help
somebody. All we then have to do is verify that
It should also be noted here that as well as
the previously mentioned Stella 3 signalling
device, riders and drivers are encouraged to
also be equipped with a SPOT Personal Tracker
device. Used by outdoor adventurers and
workers, it is a GPS tracker, plus an emergency-
signal sender. It can also send pre-recorded
messages to friends and family.
To reinforce SCORE’s safety message
to competitors, in July, Norman, acting
in partnership with the Stand 21 Safety
Foundation, presented a “Second Annual
SCORE Safety Conference”. It brought in such
motorsport safety experts as Dr Steven Olvey,
veteran IndyCar medical adviser, who talked
about concussions, explaining how the teams
could do a quick field assessment, and what to
do next if concussion is suspected.

Much like The Running of the accident really happened, and that they
were really stopping to help, not to work on Final SCORE
the Bulls in Pamplona, the their car. We haven’t had a problem with that
yet, but we do watch for it just in case.’
After four and a half years of hard work to
improve his sport’s safety, Norman now says:

goal is to move out of the

With such devices, SCORE Race Central can ‘Everything looks easy on the outside, and then
simultaneously track the location of all vehicles once you get in then you realise how much

way at the last instant

on the course, whether moving or still, and
whether they need medical assistance.
The Cruz Roja has benefited from its involvement in the Baja race, with SCORE donating much-needed life-saving equipment
harder it is, and what a difficult job it was, and
why they didn’t make changes. Because change
is always hard, and sometimes it’s not accepted,
even though everyone knows it’s going to save
lives. Everyone has the expectation that it’s
dangerous, and should never change.’
Yet he believes that it’s a challenge that’s
been met. ‘We’ve been able to make some
changes to improve safety without changing
the tradition. That’s what it’s all about.’
This year’s event is the 50th running of the
race, and there will be a great deal of attention
on it. With all of the exposure, it is critical that
this event is run as safely as possible. When
the Mariachi bands play on, and government
officials smile, as those 400 to 500 vehicles leave
the starting line, with all the sound and fury of
a Mad Max movie, on the golden anniversary of
the original running, all that Roger Norman and
his team have done to improve safety on the
Baja 1000 will be put to the test.

Just deserts

T
his year’s 50th running of the world’s oldest, longest
and continuously held desert race, will get more
attention and up-close coverage than ever.
On top of this a new movie about the race has been made
by noted Hollywood director Dana Brown. He returns to the
desert with Dust2Glory, a documentary film project as a follow-
up to his original 2005 Dust to Glory film.
Qualifying for the Trophy Trucks takes place on October
31, 2017, at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway, during the
annual SEMA Show in Las Vegas, which attracts over 150,000
attendees. The race itself starts in Ensenada BC, Mexico on
November 16, 2017, and concludes in La Paz BCS, Mexico with
awards presented on November 18, 2017.

This year sees the 50th running of the Baja 1000. Race organiser
SCORE also runs similar events such as the Baja 500 (pictured)

52 www.racecar-engineering.com NOVEMBER 2017

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 TECHNOLOGY – THE CONSULTANT
Torque wedge and
links on an Aussie V8
Optimising the suspension for a big-power V8 Supercar
QUESTION
We run a car here in Australia based on an
earlier generation V8 Supercar chassis, with
equal length four-link and a watts linkage.
Usual set-up is parallel arm geometry, with
a slight amount of nose-down which gives
a small amount of pro squat. The car has
approximately 640lb/ft at the flywheel,
and runs a 330mm wide rear tyre.
I have a question in three parts for you. A:
We race against some TransAm racecars
which almost all run a three-link, with quite
long lower arms. What are the relative
advantages of four- versus three-link in this
tarmac racing application?
B: The second part of the question is about
minimising torque wedge. We have been
experimenting with running a stiffer rear anti-
roll bar with a lower roll centre, based on what I
read in one of your previous articles. Obviously
there is a finite limit for rear roll centre as the
rocker will hit the ground. Is there a point
where lowering the roll centre and running
a stiffer rear anti-roll bar will start to impact
corner exit, even though the roll stiffness
remains the same, more or less?
C: My final question is; is a three-link better
than a four-link for minimising torque wedge?
And what, if anything, can we do with arm
angles that may help with this?
THE CONSULTANT
The main advantage of the three-link over
the four-link is that we can have some anti-
squat without having the suspension bind in
roll or creating roll oversteer.
The disadvantage of using more elastic
roll resistance and a lower roll centre is that
there is more wheel load change over one-
wheel bumps. However, there is also less
lateral displacement of the contact patches
with respect to the frame over one-wheel
bumps. This matters more when the tyres
have a lot of lateral stiffness.
As for effect on inside wheel loading when
exiting turns – or any other time – the total load
transfer (excluding the unsprung component)
is always the total roll resisting moment divided
by the track width, regardless of what portion
A three-link can completely or partially cancel torque roll and torque wedge
of the moment comes from geometry and
what part comes from the springs, bars, and
dampers. It also doesn’t matter what portion
comes from what kind of spring (an anti-roll
bar being a type of spring).
A basic three-link can completely or
partially cancel torque roll and torque
wedge. This involves either offsetting the
top link to the right or angling the top link
in top view so that the front of the link
points to the right. If the top link is on centre
and is not angled in top view, the three-link
does not reduce torque wedge.
Creative torque
What we are doing with the offset or top-view-
angled link is creating a leftward roll moment
in the suspension under power, using axle
torque. This counters the rightward moment
resulting from driveshaft torque.
The usual problem with fully or partially
cancelling torque wedge that way is that we
also create a rightward roll moment in braking,
when there is no driveshaft torque that we
need to cancel. The geometry then needs to
be a compromise, in which we accept some
roll and wedge in braking in return for partial
cancellation of roll and wedge under power.
The way out of this, rules permitting, is to
make braking torque react differently through
the linkage than propulsion torque. This usually
Structural constraints permitting there is a case for mounting the rocker to the frame as in the layout shown here. This
makes the rear roll centre rise and fall with the sprung mass, similar in behaviour to an independent front suspension
involves mounting one or both brake calipers
on birdcages or brake floaters.
A birdcage is a bracket that can rotate on
the axle tube, carrying two longitudinal links.
A brake floater is the same thing with just one
link. There are also some other possibilities
involving push bars or pull bars: links that only
work in one direction. In some cases these
solutions may be legal when birdcages and
brake floaters are prohibited.
Lower roll centres
If torque wedge can be entirely cancelled, the
need to maximise rear elastic roll resistance
goes away. There is no longer any need to get
the rear roll centre extremely low. However, if
desired, there are ways to get the roll centre
a bit lower than is possible with the layout
shown below, while still using a Watt linkage. It
is possible to turn the rocker ninety degrees
and lay it flat. This is common in TransAm cars.
Usually, the rocker is mounted horizontally
to the underside of the diff. Structural
constraints permitting, there is a case
for mounting it to the frame instead, as in
the layout below. That makes the rear roll
centre rise and fall with the sprung mass,
which is similar to the behaviour of an
independent front suspension. It is necessary
when using a horizontal rocker to make sure
not to run the rod ends out of travel.
NOVEMBER 2017 www.racecar-engineering.com 55
 TECHNOLOGY – THE CONSULTANT

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Springs, bars and
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The pros and cons of installing an anti-roll bar system
gy Since 1990
Leading-Edge Motorsport Technolo
Racecar Engineering

7
Volume 27

ineering.com • UK £5.95 • US $14.50

July 2017 • Vol 27 No 7 • www.racecar-eng
EXCLUSIVE
9 770961 109104

Porsch e at Le Mans QUESTION while providing the necessary roll resistance. When
ology transfer in the spotlight
• Techn
07

• Insight into R&D facility at Weissach I have a small formula car. It started life as an F-440. the racecar has a lot of downforce, and particularly
Track side support Porsche 919 Hybrid

I started rebuilding it a few years ago. It had rubber when the under-car aero is very sensitive to
shock absorber type units for suspension. I removed ground clearance and pitch angle, it then becomes
Technology firsts

those and fabricated in coilovers. The car has a solid necessary to use stiffer springs. The bars then
at Le Mans

rear axle, no differential. I run 10 degrees positive become more of a fine tuning tool.
There is also some advantage to running stiff
springs in a racecar without significant downforce:
the car can run with lower ride height, when it is
July 2017

DTM tech focus Race track firsts Haas Formula 1

GP team’s unique approach
limited by scraping the ground in dips. This will
We reveal how BMW and How Le Mans became a test
to chassis development
Merc deal with 2017 regs bed for future innovation
come at the cost of increased wheel load changes

Printtoarl
22/05/2017 10:29

over bumps, so the setting will be a compromise.

05B_Cuv_July-AC.indd 3

This is less true for a car that has to run on the

digi ss street. There, ground clearance requirements are

acce primarily determined by the need to clear obstacles

at low speed. Assuming we are not limited by
available suspension travel or fender clearance, that
situation favours soft springs and stiff bars.

Bar work
On racecars, and sometimes on street cars, we can
adjust the anti-roll bars, either by adjusting arm
When a racecar has a lot of downforce and under-car length or something else in the linkage, or with a

supave%
aero is sensitive to ground clearance stiffer springs rotating blade. When the bars are stiff relative to the
can be fitted, and then ARBs are used for fine-tuning springs, the car becomes more sensitive to these

44
caster; lots of positive caster helps transfer the
to weight such that on cornering the inside rear tyre is
unloaded, allowing it to slip more easily as it needs
to travel a shorter distance than the outside rear
Get the latest product tyre. My question is, would installing an anti-roll
system front and rear be counter-productive?
developments, technical If not, how much would you run in such a set-
insight and performance up – same as if the car had a differential, or some
analysis from the leading percentage less than that?
motorsport technology
adjustments. This is usually not a problem – just
something to be aware of. In some cases it can
be a problem. If the bars are very soft, it may be
necessary to change bars to get a sufficient change
in car behaviour. If the bars are stiff and adjustment
can only be made by coarse increments, we may
find we’d really like a setting between two available
ones. But such situations are fairly rare.
Caster jacking is affected not only by caster
angle but also by front-view steering offset or
scrub radius. It is fairly common on karts to adjust

publication every month.

THE CONSULTANT
If the objective is to maximise the de-wedging
effect from caster jacking, anything that makes the
suspension stiffer in warp will help. Warp is roll or
oppositional displacement in opposite directions
To order, go to: at the front and rear. With conventional springs
chelseamagazines.com/CRCEPP87 and anti-roll bars, anything that adds elastic roll
resistance makes the system stiffer in warp. With
Or call: more innovative systems that connect front and
rear wheels, this does not necessarily hold true.
+44 (0)1858 438 443 What part of the roll resistance should come
And quote CRCEPP87 for print, from the bars and what part from the springs? For
or CRCEPD87 for digital. a road car or a racecar with little downforce, as
much as half can be from the bars, or maybe even
a bit more. This allows the car to ride many types
of road irregularities better than with stiff springs,
caster jacking via spacers on the front spindles.
This is particularly useful on a vehicle with no
suspension, but it works with suspension too.
CONTACT
Mark Ortiz Automotive is a chassis consultancy
service primarily serving oval track and road
racers. Here Mark answers your chassis set-up and
handling queries. If you have a question for him,
don’t hesitate to get in touch.
E: markortizauto@windstream.net
T: +1 704-933-8876
A: Mark Ortiz
155 Wankel Drive, Kannapolis
NC 28083-8200, USA

56 www.racecar-engineering.com NOVEMBER 2017

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 TECHNOLOGY – SLIP ANGLE

The four secrets for

chassis happiness
Slip Angle provides a summary
Claude Rouelle explores the possibilities of qualifying and quantifying
of OptimumG’s seminars a racecar design or set-up through grip, balance, control and stability

p, balance, control and stability simulations are

I
e of the main focuses at OptimumG.
n the racing industry, I often
find engineers that perform
simulations in the same way
barmen create cocktails: by
(sometimes randomly) mixing
ingredients and varying quantities
until they eventually find something
that matches their taste. From
weight distribution to springs and
aerodynamic balance, everything
is changed to, after numerous
consecutive approximations, find
the best possible outputs, the most
important one being the lap time.
The barman approach has two
main problems. First, simply varying
inputs and observing the changes in
outputs without understanding the
real reason behind those changes
can be very time consuming, since it
involves lots of trial and error. There explained in previous articles in this
must be other methods that allow
us to walk less in the dark. Second,
an engineer may spend hours and
hours to find a set-up that works
perfectly in his computer, only to be
told later by the driver that the car is
undriveable. A set-up that exploits 75
per cent of the car performance can
be, on the track, quicker than a set-up
that exploits the performance at 95
per cent. We need a set of criteria to
link the perspectives of the driver
and the engineer. That is why the
concepts of grip, balance, control,
and stability are useful. To define
these concepts, we need to look at
the yaw moment diagram.
The metrics
Figure 1 shows a typical constant-
speed yaw moment diagram. As
series, the yaw moment diagram is
a representation of all the possible
states of the vehicle during a corner
at a given speed. Even though we
simulate all the combinations of
steering wheel angle (δ) and chassis
slip angle (β) within a range, most
of the time we are interested in
only a few points of the diagram.
Point 2, for example, represents the
maximum lateral acceleration of the
car while having zero yaw moment. It
corresponds to a situation where the
vehicle is at the apex of a corner. The
overall maximum acceleration that
the car can reach at a given speed is
represented by Point 3. Notice that, at
this point, the vehicle has a positive
resultant yaw moment. In other
words, when the vehicle is at the limit
of its performance, the tyre forces
and moments result in too much yaw
moment. As mentioned in previous
articles, this is what we defined as
an oversteer behaviour. We give
the name of grip and balance to,
respectively, the lateral acceleration
and the yaw moment of Point 3. The
grip is a rather obvious performance
metric of the car; as you maximise
the lateral grip of your car, it can
drive faster in corners. The balance
is a good indicator of how oversteer
or understeer will exhibit at the limit
of the car’s lateral performance: the
more positive the value is, the more
oversteer the vehicle will have; the
more negative the value is, the more
understeer the car will have.
Take a look now at Point 1
of Figure 1. This point is the
intersection of the isolines of zero
steering wheel angle and zero chassis
slip angle. It represents the car going
in a straight line, where both lateral

There must be other methods that allow us to walk less in the dark

Figure 1: Yaw moment diagram at constant speed with CG slip angle (ß) and steering (б) isolines. We are usually interested in only a few points on the diagram

!
,&
#



 

# 



2

 



58 www.racecar-engineering.com NOVEMBER 2017
acceleration and yaw moment
are zero (if the car is symmetric, of
course). When the driver turns the  


steering wheel to enter a corner, he  


creates slip angles in the front tyres,
which will generate lateral forces
and aligning moments. These forces
and moments will then result in a  



yaw moment in the car, which will be

different than zero. This is where the
definition of vehicle control comes
from; it is the change in resultant yaw
moment as you vary the steering Figure 2b: On-centre stability. The stability is
!
-'
&

) 
  $
wheel angle by one degree. The defined as the change in yaw moment as you
control can be calculated in the vary the chassis slip angle by one degree
yaw moment diagram as illustrated
in Figure 2a. By following a line of  


constant chassis slip angle (in this

case, β = 0), we can calculate the
variation of yaw moment as we travel  
  


between the lines of steering wheel
angle δ = 0 and δ = 1. Here resultant

-'
&

) 
 
control is equal to 24.7N/deg. Figure 2a: On-centre control. Control is the change in resultant yaw moment as you vary steering angle by one degree

Degrees of stability
The concept of stability is derived
in an analogous way. We start off
again with the vehicle going in a
 

  



straight line (Point 1 of Figure 1),
then we give it an increase in one
degree of chassis slip angle (β). This
increase come from a disturbance
such as a bump on the track, a gust
of wind or, worse, another car hitting
it. Wherever the disturbance comes
from, we always want the vehicle to
go back to its trajectory instead of
spinning. In other words, the tyres
must generate forces and moments
which will result in a negative yaw
moment, and rotate the car back to
its original slip angle. The stability  

is defined as the change in yaw
moment as you vary the chassis
slip angle by one degree. Therefore,
it represents the capability of the
vehicle to return to its trajectory after
a disturbance in its orientation. In the
yaw moment diagram, this situation Figure 3: Control and
!
.'
 stability can be applied at any point
&
/++


$#
 of the





" yaw moment diagram. This shows 400Nm of yaw

/





2
# 


is represented by Figure 2b. The moment variation at four degrees of CG slip angle
 

" 


1+

1,



(ß) with a steering angle variation (б) from 60 to 61 degrees
stability is calculated as the variation
of yaw moment as between two centre, but to any point of the yaw these calculations to data and and quickly make decisions about
lines of constant chassis slip angle moment diagram. Figure 3, for comments from the driver. which parameters of the car will be
(β) as you go along a line of constant example, shows the calculation of changed. In the consulting projects
steering wheel angle (in this case, δ = control for a steering wheel angle of Driver input that OptimumG performs at the
0). In the given example, the stability 60-degree and a chassis slip angle During a free practice session, racetrack, we always ask the race
is equal to -3156Nm/deg. The vehicle of four degrees, which can represent an engineer usually gets many drivers to rate the performance of
is more stable when the stability an instant when the vehicle is comments from the driver about the vehicle, at each corner (or even
value is lower (i.e. more negative). approaching the apex of the corner. the vehicle and various parts of at each section of each of the
It is important to mention that Once we have very clear notions the track. The job of the engineer corners), in three criteria:
the notions of control and stability of vehicle balance, grip, control, and is to be able to gather all these 1. Control. How well, for a given
can be applied not only to the stability, we can start associating comments (as well as vehicle data) amount of steering input, the

We ask drivers to rate the performance of the car at each corner

NOVEMBER 2017 www.racecar-engineering.com 59
TECHNOLOGY – SLIP ANGLE

racecar goes where you want it to go. This

is rated from 0 to 10.
2. Stability: How well the vehicle is capable
of staying in its trajectory during the
corner. Rated from 0 to 10.
3. Balance: Does the vehicle understeer
or does it oversteer? Rate it from -5
(understeer) to 5 (oversteer).
Organising the driver feedback according
to this set of criteria helps the engineer to
decide the changes he will make in the set-
up. Of course, he must have done simulations
prior to going to the race track.

!
.&

Figure 4: Accessing simulation data.

"!

This shows the effect of various


Figure 5: Varying parameters. The effect of front and rear toe control and stability on corner entry
!
/'







 

  $


 $


Target values
Let’s imagine a situation where the driver
rates the car control as 4/10 and the engineer
knows that, according to simulations, the
current vehicle set-up has a control of
150Nm/deg. By accessing the history of
previous testing sessions, the engineer finds
out that the driver had given a rating of 9/10
!

$
on'

set-up parameters entry control for a set-up that had a control of 220Nm/
deg, so he knows what his target value is. The
question now is; which changes will he have
to make to reach the target value? This is
where simulation data becomes crucial.
Being able to access and visualise
simulation data is as important as performing
the simulation itself. A chart such as Figure 4,
for example, can help the engineer not only
decide which parameter to change, but also
the amount of the change. Since much of the
behaviour of the car is often very non-linear,
it is also interesting to calculate metrics as
you vary certain parameters within a range,
as shown in Figure 5. If you want to observe
the interaction between two parameters and
one of the metrics, a chart like that shown in
Figure 6 can be very useful. It displays the
value of balance as you very the stiffness of
the front and rear anti-roll bars.

Useful tool
As I’ve been saying during this series of
articles about the yaw moment diagram,
this simulation method is not perfect for
many reasons (for example, the fact that
the calculation is steady-state based). In
fact, with so many parameters involved, all
simulation that you try won’t be perfect.
However, some of simulations can be useful,
and I can say that the yaw moment vs
/'+
(

lateral acceleration method is one of them.

OptimumG’s successful experience in
many championships has proven it.

CONTACT
Claude Rouelle
-+'+
(
Phone: + 1 303 752 1562
Enquiries: engineering@optimumg.com
Website: www.optimumg.com

!
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# 





 
$
-+
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#

Figure 6: If the race engineer wants to change the front anti-roll bar (ARB) stiffness by 20N/mm while



%



/
(

!



'
still keeping the same balance in the racecar, then a change of 4N/mm is required in the front ARB

60 www.racecar-engineering.com NOVEMBER 2017

 89
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 TECHNOLOGY – AEROBYTES

Flaps, flouts and

flups on a hillclimber
Our DJ Firestorm aero study concludes with some front wing tweaks

I
n this final instalment of our wind tunnel
study on the latest variant of the DJ Firestorm
UK hillclimb car, which uses the compact,
lightweight 2.5-litre V6 Cosworth KF ex-DTM
engine for nimble handling and a compact
overall package, we focus on the front wing and
efforts at gaining more aerodynamic efficiency.
With a power deficit to the competition,
efficiency was felt worthy of emphasis, along
with the usual quest for a good aero balance.
Flaps up
The new Firestorm featured a not quite full
span single front wing flap in baseline
configuration, there being a narrow gap
between the mounting plates under the nose.
In a CFD study in our April 2014 (V24 N4)
issue we saw that narrower span flaps (with a
bigger central gap) lost front wing downforce
but enabled more underbody downforce to
be generated, thus achieving similar total
downforce but with improved efficiency.
However, balance shifted rearwards.
So, with this in mind, for our wind tunnel
trial we decided to use a pair of slightly
narrower flaps each side of the nose in the hope
of improving downforce efficiency without a
rearwards balance shift. Table 1 illustrates
how the data from this set-up compared
with the baseline configuration.
Note that the data on the two narrow flaps
arrangement followed an upper front flap
adjustment to bring total downforce to a similar
level to the baseline – by happy chance it
created exactly the same total downforce. Drag
was very similar, perhaps a tiny bit more, so
efficiency was a little bit lower. What did change
though was the balance, there being a 79 count
gain at the front and a 78 count loss at the
rear (1 count is a coefficient change of 0.001),
resulting in a 4.2 per cent front increase.
So this was a rather different result to the
CFD trial, in that to retain the same downforce
level the balance shifted forwards, but
efficiency did not improve.
However, as discussed in our previous
instalments on the Firestorm, underbody
downforce seemed to be suppressed by the
combination of low dynamic ground clearance
(the car visibly compressed its suspension as
air speed increased) and the wind tunnel’s
stationary floor boundary layer. So perhaps out
on track the two front flap arrangement would
yield better downforce and efficiency.
In a further front wing CFD study in our
March 2017 (V27 N3) issue we saw that
directing more air outboard of the front wheels
with devices attached to the front end plates
could increase underbody downforce. So two
devices were made for our wind tunnel trial to
see what the effects would be. The first of these
were ‘flip outs’ or ‘flouts’, curved vertical plates
that were attached to the outer face of the front
end plates that were intended to simply steer
more air outboard of the front tyres. The
changes (∆ or delta values) are shown in
counts in Table 2. Although a drag reduction
was achieved with the flouts, there was a clear
(balanced) reduction in total downforce and
also a reduction in efficiency.
Flip side
Moving swiftly on to the next trial then, two
variants of front wing end plate flip ups, ‘flups’,
were tried next, one was tapered, the other was
a simple rectangle. Table 3 shows the results.
These were rather more beneficial
modifications, with modest drag reductions,

The flip ups proved to be rather more beneficial modifications

The DJ Firestorm was subjected to front wing tests in the MIRA full-scale wind tunnel This two-flap arrangement was compared to the baseline single flap set-up on the car

Table 1: Baseline data compared to the data with Table 2: The effects of ‘flouts’ on the
a pair of narrower front flaps each side fitted front end plates compared to the baseline
CD -CL -CLfront -CLrear %front -L/D ∆ CD ∆ -CL ∆ -CLfront ∆ -CLrear ∆ %front* ∆ -L/D
Baseline 0.775 1.892 0.547 1.345 28.9% 2.443 With flouts -8 -37 -11 -26 nil -24
With two narrow 0.778 1.892 0.626 1.267 33.1% 2.433 *Absolute rather than relative difference in percentage front.
front flaps

NOVEMBER 2017 www.racecar-engineering.com 63

 TECHNOLOGY – AEROBYTES

Flip outs (flouts), designed to steer more air outboard of the front tyres, were investigated Two types of ‘flups’ were tried. The tapered variant was half-width at the leading edge

Table 3: The effects of ‘flups’ on the front

end plates compared to the baseline Quarter cone
∆ CD ∆ -CL ∆ -CLfront ∆ -CLrear ∆ %front* ∆ -L/D
With tapered flups -6 -1 +37 -37 +2.0% +18
With rectangular -11 +4 +55 -52 +2.9% +40
flups
*Absolute rather than relative difference in percentage front.
Inverted
Table 4: The effects of VEEPs compared to flat end plates U-channel
∆ CD ∆ -CL ∆ -CLfront ∆ -CLrear ∆ %front* ∆ -L/D
With VEEPs +4 +297 +183 +112 +3.6% +375
Change, % +0.5% +20.1% +31.1% +12.5% - +19.5%
*Absolute rather than relative difference in percentage front.

Table 5: The effects of quarter cones and
inverted U-channels in the VEEPs
∆ CD ∆ -CL ∆ -CLfront
¼ cones only exposed -1 -3 -3
¼ cones and inverted +3 +32 +35
U-channels exposed
*Absolute rather than relative difference in percentage front.
up to 10 per cent more front downforce,
useful forwards balance shifts and up to 1.6
per cent improvement in efficiency (-L/D). It is
noteworthy that the gains in front downforce
(in counts) were almost exactly matched by the
losses of rear downforce. It isn’t possible
to know exactly from where the benefits
accrued in the wind tunnel, although
simplistically the flups will have been acting
like simple inverted wings and generating their
own increments of downforce. However, in our
CFD trials earlier in the year it was evident that
the wing’s own downforce was also increased
by flups, as was that of the underbody.
VEEP treatment
When we tested the original DJ Firestorm in
the MIRA wind tunnel six years ago (issues V21
N3 to N5) we compared simple flat front end
plates with so-called VEEPs or vortex entraining
end plates. The VEEPs were 100mm wide each
side, bringing the front wing assembly up to
the maximum permitted 1500mm front wing
width, and featured a longitudinal inverted
U-shaped channel in the horizontal foot plate,
VEEPs (vortex entraining end plates). This combination of designs worked very well
∆ -CLrear ∆ %front* ∆ -L/D It is abundantly clear that
the VEEPs benefitted more
-1 -0.1% -2
-4 +1.4% +32
than just the front wing
and a quarter cone at the rear, lower corner.
The results were pretty extraordinary, and
are repeated in Table 4 for reference. It is
abundantly clear that the VEEPs benefitted
more than just the front wing.
In our CFD-based feature in V27 N3 we
saw that one effect of the quarter cone was
to eradicate partial stall on the outer part of
the flap and increase front wing downforce.
The longitudinal inverted U-channel was not
evaluated in that exercise. So could we isolate
each of these features in turn in the wind tunnel
and measure their effect? We first of all covered
the quarter cones and the inverted U-channels
to create a flat footplate; then in turn the
quarter cones were uncovered and then both
the inverted U-channels and the quarter cones
were uncovered, with the results relative to the
flat footplate shown in Table 5.
This was a surprising result in that exposing
the quarter cones alone appeared to have a
small negative effect. However, exposing the
combination of the quarter cones with inverted
U-channels had a beneficial effect, with seven
per cent more front downforce, a useful
forwards balance shift and 1.3 per cent better
efficiency. Perhaps one difference between our
wind tunnel trial and our earlier CFD trial was
that the flap angle tested in the wind tunnel
was not steep enough for outer flap stall to
occur, and hence the quarter cones brought no
advantage. Further investigation is warranted.
Racecar’s thanks goes to Richard and Alex
Summers and the DJ Engineering crew.
CONTACT
Simon McBeath offers aerodynamic
advisory services under his own brand of
SM Aerotechniques –
www.sm-aerotechniques.co.uk.
In these pages he uses data from MIRA
to discuss common aerodynamic issues
faced by racecar engineers
Produced in association with MIRA Ltd
Tel: +44 (0) 24-7635 5000
Email: enquiries@horiba-mira.com
Website: www.horiba-mira.com

64 www.racecar-engineering.com NOVEMBER 2017

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 TECHNOLOGY – BRAKES

Disc world
The demands placed on motorsport brakes and braking systems
have never been greater, but thankfully the development of retardation
technology is – ironically enough – unstoppable. Racecar investigates
By GEMMA HATTON

B
rake-by-wire was introduced in F1
together with the revolution of the
1.6-litre V6 turbo powertrains back
in 2014. These dramatic rule changes
allowed a maximum of 2MJ of energy per lap
to be recovered through the rear brakes and
so the engine manufacturers developed their
own MGU-K (Motor Generator Units – Kinetic).
These systems can transfer a maximum of
4MJ per lap from the energy store back to the
drivetrain during acceleration, which equates to
approximately 160bhp for 33 seconds each lap.
To achieve this, the braking system has
the energy used from the rears with the energy
that is being recovered and ensure that there is
no remaining force when the driver releases the
pedal, which could lead to the wheels locking.
This year’s wider tyres and higher downforce
has increased the wheel torque by roughly 20
per cent, demanding more from the brakes.
Therefore, the carbon discs are wider on both
the front and rear, with an increase in thickness
from 28mm to 32mm. The aluminium lithium
monobloc calipers are larger, each weighing an
extra 300g, as the wider tyres allow more space
for the inner wheel assembly. Each carbon pad
whereas, Singapore, Monza and Canada require
a lot more performance and so would use the
high cooling disc, with 1300 ventilation holes.
Maintaining the brakes within the optimum
temperature window is one of the race
engineer’s main challenges and is a balancing
act. The pads and discs need to be hot to give
the brakes ‘bite’, which is why at the start of
most races, when the brakes are cold, drivers
often struggle around the first few corners,
until the brakes are up to temperature. The heat
generated from the brakes can also be used
to increase tyre temperatures via complex air

This year wider tyres and higher

downforce in Formula 1 has increased
the wheel torque by roughly 20 per cent,
demanding more from the brakes
two hydraulic circuits, with a separate master
cylinder for the front brakes, and another for the
rear. The front brakes operate conventionally;
where the driver pushes the pedal with a force
of 160kg, applying pressure to the fluid in the
master cylinder. This fluid is used to actuate
the six pistons within the caliper which clamps
the brake pads to the carbon disc with around
five tonnes of pressure; reducing the speed of
the wheels through friction.
The rear brakes, though, have an additional
master cylinder which is electronically
controlled. Therefore, during braking, the fluid
is moved through the rear master cylinder as
normal, but the MGU-K then determines the
amount of pressure applied to the rear calipers.
In this way, the energy from the rear brakes
is recovered, but once the 2MJ limit has been
reached, the rear brakes operate conventionally.
Point brake
The biggest challenge with this system, is
tuning all the various brake maps so that the
driver gets consistent feedback of retardation
versus pressure regardless of whether the rear
brakes are being controlled electrically, or purely
hydraulically. These maps also have to balance
has also increased in width by 2mm. The
brake-by-wire system on the rear means
that the front axle experiences the most
braking performance, therefore the rear
calipers are smaller, operating only four
pistons and the diameter and thickness of
rear discs have reduced by seven per cent.
Cool pad
The wider discs also allow for improved
cooling, which is essential when the friction
on the discs can generate temperatures
up to 1200degC – which is similar to the
temperature of molten lava. To dissipate
this heat, the carbon discs have ventilation
holes that are between 2.5 to 3mm in
diameter and the number of holes is
inversely proportional to the diameter
of the disc. With each circuit demanding
different performance from the brakes,
Brembo supply three types of discs, each
with a different level of cooling to suit
particular tracks. For example, the low
cooling discs only have 500 ventilation
holes and so would be used at Silverstone,
Spa, Sao Paulo and Suzuka, where the F1 carbon brake discs can reach 1200degC. That’s why each disc
average braking demands are relatively low, can have up to 1300 ventilation holes in it to help to dissipate heat

NOVEMBER 2017 www.racecar-engineering.com 67

 TECHNOLOGY – BRAKES
Brembo sees the worth of its involvement in Formula 1 both from a technology development and PR point of view and is always keen to show off the capabilities of its brake systems
ducts. However, it’s also important to keep the
brakes cool, as this slows the rate of wear. ‘It’s
very important for teams to experiment with the
set-up of the car during FP1 and FP2 to define
the optimum working range of temperatures for
the brake discs and pads,’ says Andrea Pellegrini,
Brembo F1 engineer. ‘If initial temperatures are
too low, under 250degC, then the drivers can
glaze the disc which decreases the life. However,
if temperatures are too high, above 600degC,
then you can have high wear.
‘They also have to keep in mind that during
the race weekend, brake temperatures will
continue to increase due to track evolution
and also at the start of the race when the car
is heavy with fuel,’ Pellegrini adds. ‘Therefore,
‘Every F1 team’s car has a dedicated front and rear caliper design’
68 www.racecar-engineering.com NOVEMBER 2017
the engineers need to continually adjust the
margins of their defined temperature window.’
Each team’s braking system differs from the
other as every driver’s preferences are different
and so is the team’s design approach. ‘Every
team has a dedicated front and rear caliper
design because some teams prefer stiffer, but
therefore heavier and larger calipers, and there
are other variances in terms of the weight of
the rim and the installation,’ Pellegrini says.
‘Stiff calipers and an overall stiff system gives
consistent feedback to the driver from the
beginning to the end of the race, but of course
this compromises the weight.
‘There are some drivers who prefer braking
with a long pedal, and so require shorter master
cylinder travel, and others that drive better with
a shorter pedal,’ Pellegrini adds. ‘So the size of
the master cylinder is also different between
teams, but the discs are usually the same.’
Brake test
In the dry, the braking points in circuit racing
remain the same each lap as the track exhibits
a relatively consistent level of grip, aside from a
small improvement in track evolution. Of course,
there will be variations in driver style and car
performance, but these are relatively minor.
However, in the world of rallying, loose surfaces
such as gravel, snow and sand are continuously
changing and the unknown grip level around
each corner is one of the main challenges. This
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TECHNOLOGY – BRAKES
Top four images: Brembo F1 monobloc brake calipers are made
from aluminium lithium and take around 40 hours to machine.
They use six pistons to apply approximately five tonnes of
pressure onto the pads. Bottom image: Alcon’s R5 4-piston
monobloc rally caliper has internal passageways for fluid cooling
‘Feel and consistency of the brakes is key for rally drivers to have
the confidence to push to the maximum in varying conditions’
70 www.racecar-engineering.com NOVEMBER 2017
WRC drivers left foot brake to instantly load up the front tyres to stabilise the car on ever-changing surfaces
is why rally drivers are masters of the art of
left foot braking, because by continually
balancing the throttle with the brakes, they can
instantly load the front tyres to stabilise the car,
regardless of the available grip.
Unlike circuit racing, where the different
demands of each track usually require
modifying the brake operating temperature
window slightly and adjusting the cooling
strategy, rally stages present a whole host of
other issues that the brakes have to cope with.
Continuous sequences of corners subjects
the brakes to high loads as the drivers are
continually modulating the pedal to stabilise
and adjust the position of the car and therefore
there is no time for this heat to dissipate.
Furthermore, most stages experience
changes in altitude, such as the Ibarilla special
stage in Mexico, where drivers descend 534m
over 20km, increasing the stress on the brakes.
There is then the issue of thermal shock, which
occurs when the cars race across fords or
snow and can initiate cracks on the discs and
ultimately the pads detaching. Depending on
the surface and individual demands of each
stage, different size discs are used. For example,
on asphalt rallies where there are usually several
90-degree corners, larger discs up to 370mm in
diameter and 30 to 32mm in thickness are used,
whereas unpaved stages use smaller discs at
300mm diameter and 25.4 to 28mm thickness.
Brake bias
Jonathan Edwards, sales director at Alcon, says:
‘Feel and consistency of the brakes is key for
drivers to have the confidence to push to the
maximum in varying conditions. The braking
systems are typical hydraulic systems with dual
master cylinders on a balance bar to provide
a front and rear split. There is also a hydraulic
handbrake via a long lever with a low friction
master cylinder for maximum efficiency.’
Rally brakes use iron discs which are
resistant to cracking and coning; aluminium
grade (typically 2618) 4-piston calipers and
metallic pads. ‘The latter vary from driver to
driver according to their preference and these
high friction pads experience minimal wear.
The material must be able to work well when
the pads are cold, but be sympathetic enough
to the disc to avoid cracking due to the sharp
thermal gradients,’ explains Edwards.
The heat is on
The cooling strategy for the brakes used in
rallying is similar to most forms of motorsport
where cool air is fed through the brake ducts
into the eye of the disc and the caliper body. As
well as ventilation holes, the discs also have a
vane design to further dissipate heat, which is
particularly important for tarmac. Some teams
also have liquid cooling systems for the calipers
via a closed loop internal design.
The future of brake technology in rallies will
centre around light-weighting and innovative
materials. However, regenerative braking is
also a potential technology. ‘It would be similar
to other forms of motorsport where it would
likely require an active brake-by-wire system
to allow the teams to blend the friction brakes
with the regeneration torque. This would mean
there would be a natural downsizing of the
friction brakes due to their lower utilisation,’
says Edwards. ‘The main difference for rally
would depend on how the electric drive system
would be applied to a 4WD. For example, the
rear-wheel drivetrain could be replaced entirely
by electric drive. With a brake-by-wire system
this would eliminate the need for a hydraulic
handbrake circuit and the handbrake would
likely become an electronic potentiometer.
In lower friction situations such as gravel or
snow, this may also eliminate the need for
rear friction brakes entirely.’
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 TECHNOLOGY – RICARDO

Road works
How well-known engineering wizard Ricardo
has taken the lead in developing motorsport
technology that has transferred to road cars
By GEMMA HATTON

Work in progress at Ricardo.

Helical gears, a shaft of which
can be seen here, are primarily
used in transmissions

Car manufacturers
T
he competitive nature of Motorsport combining twice the power whilst improving
provides the perfect platform to fuel consumption by 35 per cent.

are now no longer

develop innovative technologies The spectrum of transferable technologies
which, once proven, filter down into and processes from the race track to the road

using motorsport
other industries. One of the most successful
examples of this is the Kinetic Energy Recovery
System (KERS). First introduced in F1 in 2009,
purely for their recovered braking energy was used to generate
an extra 80bhp for the driver to deploy
brand awareness throughout six seconds per lap. Four years
later in 2013, Volvo reported that KERS
improved fuel consumption by 25 per cent
on its S60 model. Today’s Formula 1 Energy
Recovery Systems (ERS) are now even more
efficient, with the MGU-K and the MGU-H
has become the backbone of companies such
as Williams Advanced Engineering and McLaren
Applied Technologies. Through their work with
other sectors, these companies have generated
the revenue to then support their partner F1
teams. This technology life cycle has become
so successful that car manufacturers are no
longer using motorsport purely for brand
awareness. Instead, they are investing in areas
of racing which could see the next innovation;
as demonstrated by the nine manufacturers

NOVEMBER 2017 www.racecar-engineering.com 73

TECHNOLOGY – RICARDO

‘Ricardo invented the viscous coupling which was adopted

by virtually all of the Group B rally cars back in the 1980s’
competing in Formula E in its fifth season
(2018/19), with Porsche and Mercedes also
joining the series the season after that.
It is a similar story for many of the industry’s
suppliers, where products designed for racing
have found their way on to road cars. This
has been the case for Ricardo, whose first
transferable technology dates back to the 1960s
when Harry Ferguson, one of FF Developments’
Components of a high performance gearbox. Ricardo has a long history of transmission innovation for both track and road
original founders (it was acquired by Ricardo
in the 1990s) developed a four-wheel-drive
Formula 1 car; the P99. Once driven to victory
by Sir Stirling Moss, the technology was later
developed and applied to the 1966 Jensen FF,
which many cite as the first ever road car to
feature four-wheel-drive.
With this sort of background Ricardo was
more than ready when rallying embraced
4wd. ‘The mid 1980s, with the Group B rally
cars was one of many of Ricardo’s successes
in motorsport,’ says Steven Blevins, project
manager of High Performance Transmission
Products for Ricardo. ‘We invented viscous
coupling which was adopted by virtually all
of the Group B rally cars at that time and the
technology can still be seen in some road cars.’
Viscous coupling, in principle, is similar to a
limited slip differential (LSD, see box out) in that
it achieves independent rotation at the wheels,
whilst also locking; to allow the transfer of
torque to both wheels to overcome low traction
conditions. However, viscous coupling is usually
used to link the two axles, for 4wd cars, so if one
set of wheels starts to slip, torque is transferred
to the other set. Each coupling consists of a
series of plates which are connected to the
driveshafts and are immersed in a viscous fluid.
When one set of plates starts to rotate at a
higher speed, the viscosity of the fluid increases,
generating friction which then drags the slower
set of plates up to the same speed. In this way,
torque is transferred to the slower moving
wheels and the couplings become locked.
Unlike normal differentials, which are torque
sensing and can sometime be quite aggressive,
viscous coupling is speed sensing, which allows
for a much smoother ramp up in engagement.
‘One of the big advantages to viscous
coupling is it’s relatively maintenance free,’

Ricardo developed viscous coupling, which is a type of differential that uses a viscous fluid to generate friction between plates and transfers torque between two driveshafts. On
the left is the front assembly of an LMP1 spec viscous coupling while the image on the right shows the internals of the device. Ricardo first used this technology in Group B rallying

74 www.racecar-engineering.com NOVEMBER 2017

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TECHNOLOGY – RICARDO

The knowledge: LSDs

T
he aim of a differential is to not only split the torque
from the engine to both wheels on an axle, but also
to allow each wheel to rotate at different speeds. This
is essential when driving around a corner when the outside
wheel needs to travel further than the inside wheel, and
therefore rotate more. If both wheels were to rotate at the
same speed, then one wheel would have to lose traction
and slip to complete the turn. A gear assembly is used to
rotate both the right and left driveshafts together (locked
differential), as well as independently (open differential).
A more advanced system is a limited slip differential
(LSD) which is designed to combine the benefits of both
an open and locked differential. Therefore, when one
wheel starts to slip due to a loss of grip, a small amount
of torque is transferred to this wheel to help it overcome
this lack of traction; acting like a locked differential.
However, the majority of torque is still sent to the
wheel with traction, to allow it to continue rotating
independently; acting like an open differential. Ricardo designed pneumatic paddleshifts for Le Mans to reduce driver fatigue and avoid over-revving which
This is often achieved through a clutch pack on each helped the transmissions to survive 24 hours of racing. Audi’s R8 won five Le Mans with Ricardo paddleshfts
side of the gear assembly and consists of a series of friction
plates that rotate with the differential housing and are
interlaced with a series of clutch discs that rotate with the
driveshafts. The two spider gears are connected by a set of
planet gears which move under acceleration and braking,
exerting a force, via a cross pin, on the ramp plates which
either compresses or releases the clutch packs.

Ramping up
The amount of force exerted is dependent on the working
angle of the ramp plates fitted to the differential. Therefore,
during acceleration, the planet gear moves and exerts a
force on the ramp plates, which compresses the clutch
packs and locks the differential. Under braking, the planet
gear is moved in the opposite direction and the ramp angle
results in a lower force on the clutch packs, so that the
wheels can rotate independently, but some torque is still
transferred to provide an element of locking; preventing
either wheel slipping excessively.
The amount of torque on the differential when
accelerating from a relatively low speed is approximately
1g, whereas under braking, the torque transferred is
around 0.3g. To avoid the wheels slipping at all, a pre-load
is also applied to the clutch packs when the diff housing
is first assembled, therefore, this resultant torque needs to
be overcome before either wheel starts to lose grip. The
amount of locking is a balancing act, but one that engineers
can use to tune their car set-up to suit particular tracks.
‘A lot of development
Mark Barge worked closely with Audi Sport, developing the transmission for the Audi R8 in the early 2000s,
which was also used in the Gibson LMP2 chassis until 2016. Ricardo also has experience with spec formulae
Blevins adds. ‘The plates in normal differentials ‘This design could essentially achieve 100 per
wear after about 1500 to 2000km, particularly cent locking through the plate differential,
in rally and circuit racing applications. The driver but the viscous coupling also provided an
can feel this wear in the differential as a delay element of damping,’ says Blevins.
between locking between drive and overrun, so Ricardo’s next motorsport innovation that
you almost get this free-wheeling type situation. was quickly integrated into road cars was the
It’s for a very short amount of time, but enough paddleshift developed for Audi during its
to unsettle the driver. Whereas viscous coupling domination of Le Mans in the early 2000s. ‘The
has no mechanical contact within any elements typical characteristics of Le Mans in those days
of the disc because of the fluid. In sportscars, in round figures was 5000km in 24 hours which
we used to service the viscous couplings once equates to roughly 20,000 gear shifts,’ says
a year and when you think that includes the
Le Mans 24 hours, you are looking at about a
Mark Barge, managing director of Performance
Products at Ricardo. ‘The transmission is actually

went into the paddles service every 12,000km, compared to every

2000km with a plate differential.’
a key structural component of the car and
is subjected to all the suspension loads and

themselves, to try and Visco-mechanical

stresses, so a lot of development work had to be
done to ensure it survived the 24 hours.’

provide the driver Ricardo also developed a visco-mechanical

differential which was used by Audi in its
The Audi R8R and the R8C debuted at
Le Mans in 1999, with the former featuring

with some feedback’ sportcar programme. This essentially combined

a mechanical plate differential with a viscous
coupling to try and achieve a unit that had
the advantages of both, without the negatives.
a pneumatically-actuated gearbox with
paddleshifts and the latter using the traditional
manual gearbox with a lever. In 2000, Audi
debuted the famous R8, which claimed five

76 www.racecar-engineering.com NOVEMBER 2017

TECHNOLOGY – RICARDO
‘There’s a real skill in getting these sections down to the minimum’
Le Mans wins and used a Megaline pneumatic
paddleshift system. Ideally, drivers want to keep
their hands on the wheel at all times, which is
one of the benefits of using paddles, while they
also reduce driver fatigue, which is critical in
endurance races such as Le Mans.
Shift work
‘These systems reduce the risk of getting the
gearshift wrong and damaging the gearbox
or miss-timing the shift and over-revving
the engine,’ explains Blevins. ‘Not only can
the system prevent the driver from shifting
down too early, but it is also clever enough to
realise that two upshifts within half a second is
probably wrong, which can happen if the driver
goes over a bump and accidentally pulls the
paddle. Therefore, this system was one of the
Some complex F1 housings can be machined for over 40 hours – enough time to machine an entire clay model of a road car
Formula E
T
o keep up with the development of
electrification, Ricardo is working with some
Formula E teams, supplying their transmissions
for Season 5 onwards. Efficiency has become an
essential requirement in any category of motorsport,
however, with teams restricted by the capabilities of
battery technology, efficiency can be the difference
between a winner and a loser in Formula E.
‘Recently, we completed a research project for one
of the teams to determine the efficiency improvement
of a particular concept. We worked with them for
around four months to produce a single set of parts
which they then tested on their dyno,’ explains
Blevins. ‘The new concept achieved less than a per
78 www.racecar-engineering.com NOVEMBER 2017
main drivers for increasing the reliability of the
gearbox to get it through the 24-hour race.’
The Megaline paddleshift system is
electronically controlled, but pneumatically
driven. A gearbox control unit (GCU) consists
of an electronic control unit, a compressor and
a pressure reservoir which is connected to the
valve block that is secured to the gearbox. The
electric compressor and an accumulator supply
this pressurised air to the valve block which
opens pneumatic valves to feed the air behind
the pistons, which changes gear.
‘Although it’s a small part of the system,
a lot of development went into the paddles
themselves to try and provide the driver
with some feedback,’ says Blevins. ‘There is
actually an over-centre action within the
paddles, so the driver knows the change has
cent efficiency gain throughout the driveline. Now,
to you and I that is a small number, but the team
was more than happy, because they had predicted
an improvement of around that figure. Despite this
minute change, it was still worth pursuing. Those are
the sort of margins we are dealing with in Formula E.’
The gearbox for these electric racecars couldn’t be
simpler; a single speed gearbox is all that is necessary,
as the motors can reverse and there is no need for
a clutch. However, this drive for efficiency means
everything has to be as lightweight as possible and so
despite the simplicity of the concept, a huge amount
of technology is invested into the gear geometries and
finishing techniques, for example, to reduce weight.
been made, and this feedback can be felt in
the paddleshift systems of road cars.’
Today’s gearshift systems are now
predominantly electric as it avoids the
inefficiencies associated with converting energy
between pneumatic and mechanical. These are
also much smaller, with the components for the
pneumatic system replaced by essentially one
circuit board and a stepper motor.
From 2005 onwards, Ricardo shifted focus
to F1, where the challenge was centred around
material science and exploiting manufacturing
processes. ‘Although advanced aerospace
materials were understood, they weren’t
commercially available,’ says Barge. ‘However,
the demands of F1 teams put pressure on
material manufacturers to create alternative
steels along with the development of thin
section aluminium, titanium and high strength
magnesium. This flows all the way to the present
day where it’s now quite normal to have the
transmission structure made from carbon fibre
with other specialised materials, with these
lightweight structures becoming increasingly
common in high performance roadcars.’
F1 intricacies
The complex and intricate designs of Formula 1
components also demands new manufacturing
processes to cope with the required accuracy of
the machining features that had to be achieved
within a small area. ‘It would be quite normal
for some complex housings to be machined for
more than 40 hours non-stop, which is more
than enough to machine an entire clay model
of a whole car,’ Barge says. ‘Yet, it’s not about
the amount of removed material, as there is
minimal waste, it’s all about achieving those
intricacies that requires an almost dentistry
approach. There’s a real skill and experience in
getting these sections down to the minimum,
which defines Formula 1 really.’
The transfer of technology is not always
from motorsport to road car. When Ricardo
became the sole supplier for some single
make series, it needed the manufacturing
expertise used in automotive to cope with the
increased production numbers. ‘To supply a
championship, you need the best from both
worlds: you need to engineer high performance
components and yet be able to manufacture
them on a production line,’ Barge says. ‘To
produce parts to the expected standards,
we’ve had to really focus on production
methodologies such as design control, quality
control and full component traceability, but
on a much larger scale. No driver can have
an advantage so performance, reliability and
quality needs to be exactly the same – despite
how much each team wants you to gain
them a performance advantage.’
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TECHNOLOGY – DAMPER TUNING

Shocking news
Racecar’s numbers man dispels some damper myths while also
showing how shocks can be used to help fine tune a chassis
By DANNY NOWLAN

The writer brought his damper

wisdom to bear when sorting
the handling of a Lamborghini
GT3 such as the one pictured

S
ince I have been contributing to
Racecar Engineering one of the
subjects I’ve covered that always gets
a response is damping. Given that
damping is a critical but very poorly understood
area of racecar engineering this is not surprising.
However, one thing that I have not yet addressed
is what part of the damper do you need to adjust
to get a desired result. This is what we will be
discussing at length in this article.
Before we begin we need to deal with one
great myth about dealing with racecar damping.
This is to do with the peak force vs peak velocity
graph. This is illustrated in Figure 1. The biggest
suck-you-in with racecar damping is that if
the curve in Figure 1 moves up and down
then everyone thinks the damping has been
increased/decreased. This is complete nonsense.
The thing that drives damping behaviour
is damping rate. This is the slope of the graph
and you’ll see an illustration on how to calculate
this on the chart. Typical racing numbers are in
the order of 3000 to 20000N/m/s. All damping
behaviour stems from here. Some might point
out that regressive damping disproves this.
However, once you dig beneath the surface it is
actually the exception that proves the rule. Why
this is so we’ll discuss at another time.
To kick this discussion off we have to review
some basics first, and this starts with the quarter
car model. The reason we review the quarter
car model is because it’s a very simple and
instructional tool to educate us as to where to
start. Just to refresh everyone’s memory the
quarter car model is shown in Figure 2.
The parameters of the model are:
mB = Mass of the quarter car (kg)
mT = Mass of the tyre/unsprung mass (kg)
KB = Spring rate of the body (N/m)

You have to always remember that it is the damping rate as opposed

to the magnitude of the damping force that drives damping behaviour
80 www.racecar-engineering.com NOVEMBER 2017
With the quarter car, Figure 1: Peak force vs peak velocity graph
given a damping
ratio we can then
calculate the
damping rate
CB = Damping rate of the body (N/m/s)
KT = Spring rate of the tyre
The key thing to recognise here is that all
spring and damper rates are specified at the
wheel. So you will have to take into account
the motion ratios. Also, work this in strict SI
units. I know that if you are based in North
America this will annoy you, but if you go down
the Imperial road you will get lost.
The great thing about the quarter car model
Figure 2: Quarter car model
is we can break the car down into natural
frequencies and damping ratios. I’ve gone into
the proof of this in past articles, but let’s get
to the results. All damping behaviour can be
summarised by Equation 1:

C B = 2 ⋅ ω0 ⋅ mB ⋅ ζ
CB
ζ =
2 ⋅ ω 0 ⋅ mB

Here the terms of the equation are:
CB = Wheel damping rate of the spring (N/m/s)
mB = Mass of the quarter car.
ωO = Natural frequency (rad/s)
ζ = Damping ratio

The power of the quarter car is that given

a damping ratio we can readily calculate the
damping rate we want. Once we know the
Figure 3: Second order system response by damping ratio
damping rates we want we can then turn around
to a damper builder and specify that this is
the damping curve we require. This is why this
technique is so powerful, and it goes back to
our earlier point that it is the damping rate as
opposed to the magnitude of the damping force
that drives damping behaviour. Remember,
the damping force is a consequence of the
damping rate, so keep this in mind.
However, once we understand second order
time based frequency response we can actually
use the damping ratio to tune the response we
want. This is illustrated in Figure 3.
As can be seen, when the damping ratio is
greater than 0.5 this is ideal for body control
and when it is between 0.3 to 0.4 it’s ideal for
riding kerbs. This has led to my damping ratio
selection guide that I first discussed back in
2008 (Figure 4 ). While this isn’t the last word on
where you select your damping, the power of

NOVEMBER 2017 www.racecar-engineering.com 81

TECHNOLOGY – DAMPER TUNING

Figure 4 is it gives you some rough numbers

Figure 4: Damping ratio selection guide to hang your hat on. Also, combined with
Equation 1, it gives you the metrics to
understand what you have in front of you.
The next step in understanding damper
behaviour, or more importantly what to do with
it, comes in understanding the beam pogo stick
approximation of the racecar. This is shown in
Figure 5. While this will not win any prizes for
technical drawing it illustrates all the key aspects
of racecar behaviour. For example, if you hit
the brakes and you need to keep the nose up,
what do you do? You increase front spring rate.
Guess what the damping equivalent of this is;
you increase the front damping rate, particularly
in bump. Also, at the rear as the rear squats and
you want to keep the rear up, you increase rear
spring rate. What is the damping equivalent? You
guessed it, you increase the rear bump rate.

Damper curves
Figure 5: Beam pogo stick approximation of the racecar One thing to keep in mind, just remember your
base damping curve will be a compromise. It
will be a trade-off of body control, and how
the car rides the bumps and the frequency
behaviour you want from the car. You start
this process with damping ratios, you dial this
in with a tool like the ChassisSim shaker rig
toolbox, and then you go to the track to test.
The combinations thereof will settle on what the
mid-range damper curve looks like.
That said, there is quite a bit of on-track
tuning you can do with dampers and here
are some rules of thumb that over the years
have worked very well for me:
• If the dampers are wildly oscillating and the
car is undriveable – increase the damping.
• Turn-in understeer – decrease front
bump and rear rebound. Reviewing
the beam pogo stick model, this will
force the car to pitch.
Figure 6: Increasing low speed bump at the front
• Corner exit understeer – increase the
rear bump. This is effectively adding
transient rear spring.

Also, it goes without saying that if you have

the opposite condition the inverse applies. I
should also add that for an aero car these effects
become even more pronounced.

Bumped up
To work through some examples of this let’s do
some simulations using ChassisSim. The reason
we are using ChassisSim is that its lap time
simulation is transient. Consequently we can
actually simulate the effect of dampers on the
vehicle’s performance and ultimately lap time.
The Lamborghini was exhibiting borderline turn-in oversteer so the first step was to increase the bump at the front of the car This is a key distinction that separates ChassisSim
amongst its contemporaries, but we will discuss

While it has a big impact on overall performance the whys of this another time.
For the purpose of this study we will focus on

we should not use a damper to correct a problem

an Lamborghini LP560 GT3 around Willowbank/
Queensland Raceway in Australia.

we should be correcting with something else

This car was borderline turn-in oversteer so
for our first change we increased the front bump.

82 www.racecar-engineering.com NOVEMBER 2017

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TECHNOLOGY – DAMPER TUNING

These are all the things you would expect from softening the rear
spring on a racecar, but this time we have done it with a damper

Figure 7: Decreasing low speed bump at the rear The results of this is shown in Figure 6. The
baseline is coloured and the simulated is black.
As can be seen it has had a marginal increase in
steer angle which is the effect we are after. It has
gone from 5.96-degree of steer to 6.17-degree
of steer. Also, the front pitch was decreased by
0.5mm. Ultimately this actually increased the
car’s lap time, but on the other hand it did have
the handling effect we were after.

Bumped down
The second change was to decrease the rear
bump to help with rear turn-exit oversteer. The
results are shown in Figure 7.
As before coloured trace was the baseline,
the changed was black. Looking at the data a
couple of things are apparent. The steering
The second step in the damper tuning of the Lamborghini was to decrease rear bump to help sort out corner-exit oversteer lock has increased marginally from five
degrees to six degrees, the rear dampers have
Figure 8: Where to tune for damper velocity squatted by an extra1mm on average, and
you have more throttle application. These
are all the things you would expect from
softening the rear spring, but this time we
have done it with the damper.
As we review the data we need to keep in
mind a couple of things. Firstly, because these
are simulated changes the magnitudes of the
changes will always be far more subtle than with
an actual driver. However, this also illustrates
that a damper is a fine tuning tool and while
it has a big impact on overall car performance
we need to be very mindful not to try and use a
damper to correct a problem that we should be
correcting with something else.
Also, to wrap up this discussion, where in
the damper curve should we actually be tuning?
The answer is readily found by plotting corner
speed, damper movement and damper velocity.
This is illustrated in Figure 8.
To find out where in the curve you need to tune you have to plot corner speed, damper movement and the damper velocity So, in this particular example the front
dampers are relatively well controlled but the
rears need work. In this case you simply read
off the damper velocity which here is 275mm/s,
and that is where in the damping curve you
should apply all your efforts.

Shock tactics
In closing there are some very simple techniques
Gaz coilover shocks. Dampers are a that can be applied to tune the racecar using
potent tuning tool in their own right, dampers. The first step in the process is to
but to get the very best from them understand the quarter car model and know
you need to use them appropriately what your damping ratios are.
Then, using the beam pogo stick model as a
visualisation tool to help you and exploring this
with software like ChassisSim, you can refine the
transient handling using dampers. Once you get
your head around this you will find just what a
powerful tuning tool dampers are, provided
they are used appropriately.

84 www.racecar-engineering.com NOVEMBER 2017

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 TECH DISCUSSION – LMP1
Eyes on the prize
The ACO has reacted to the bombshell of Porsche’s withdrawal
from LMP1 with a new set of technical regulations for the class
By ANDREW COTTON
F
ollowing Porsche’s announcement
that it will withdraw from the World
Endurance Championship, the ACO
has finally announced its ‘Plan B’ for
the future of LMP1 regulations. Gone is the plan
to complete 1km on electric power only at Le
Mans, and crucially gone too is the necessity
for a manufacturer to compete with a hybrid in
the top class. The new-look LMP1 cars will run
in one class, and will be balanced for lap time
only, with the expectation that hybrid will be
used for economy rather than power, and so will
go longer on each fill of fuel. That means that
any incident or delays that occur early on in an
endurance race will be easier to mitigate than
later in the race, when strategy will have less of
an impact on the overall result.
The decision to not implement the rules
that were announced at Le Mans in June was
designed to bring in new manufacturers. The
plug-in hybrid idea was conceived by the FIA
through Lindsay Owen-Jones, President of the
Endurance Commission, and agreed by Toyota,
Porsche and Peugeot, if it would help to bring
in the French manufacturer. However, the
argument remains that the Le Mans regulations
should have been designed to attract new
manufacturers, and not just Peugeot.
‘Having Porsche leave at an unexpected
time, it is an opportunity to be attractive so you
re-open the door and make the category easier
to access for other manufacturers,’ said the ACO’s
sporting director Vincent Beaumesnil. ‘We are
convinced that this is the right plan now.’
The regulations should have been designed to attract manufacturers
The decision to open the regulations up to
manufacturers competing in the non-hybrid
class, and balanced by fuel flow, means Toyota
could be competing against a rival that is
spending significantly less. The manufacturer is
unlikely to spend money developing a new car
with a lower hybrid capability, and will certainly
not compete with no hybrid power.
P2s thwarted
The insistence that cars be balanced with a
fuel flow meter effectively rules out the LMP2
teams that considered moving to LMP1 with
their current cars unrestricted. Without ballast,
and with the engine increased in power, teams
believe they could lap at Le Mans in 3m20s, and
use less than a litre more fuel despite the extra
power. With confidential tyres, banned in LMP2,
and with aero development, the cars could
compete with modification to the bodywork
to reduce length by 100mm.
However, the fuel flow meter also rules out
DPi teams and manufacturers competing in the
US from coming to Le Mans in the top class with
their IMSA-specification engines. Teams are still
hopeful that, in these turbulent times, the ACO
will change course and allow in the non-fuel
flow meter cars, and it seems likely that the US
and European rules may come together in the
next rule set due in 2020.
The fuel flow decision means that the ACO
has put its faith in the new LMP1 cars that are
currently under construction at Dallara, for the
SMP and ART teams, and Ginetta. Nicolas Perrin,
who also had an LMP1 car in design and is ready
to build one, says that there is more supply from
manufacturers than demand from customers,
and so has stopped his programme for next
season as an agreed contract fell through.
What the rules do is open the door to
Peugeot, which now has everything that
it wants to compete; a lower-capacity
hybrid system, a lower budget and equal
opportunity to compete. However, the French
manufacturer was in September accused of its
part in an emissions scandal that, according
to Autocar magazine in the UK, could cost the
manufacturer €5bn. The claims against PSA
are published in a report from the European
Union’s directorate-general for competition,
consumer affairs and fraud prevention,
according to Autocar, although the PSA
group says that it complies with regulations
in every country where it operates.
For Toyota, which objected to the increase
in the number of races and the introduction
of the third ERS but was over-ruled in both
matters, the decision on whether or not to
compete under the new regulations will come
in October and it has asked directly whether
or not Peugeot will come and if so, when? ‘We
need to understand where the calendar goes,
if competitors are coming and based on that
where the regulation goes,’ said Toyota’s team
principal, Pascal Vasselon. ‘These are the three
things; calendar, competitors and regulations.
We need to have some indications that new
competitors are coming.’
NOVEMBER 2017 www.racecar-engineering.com 87
BUSINESS – PEOPLE

Interview – Alan Gow

Ready steady Gow

The boss of the BTCC talks TCR, touring car ‘cultures’ around the world,
and the place of hybrid power in future British Touring Cars
By MIKE BRESLIN

I
XPB
‘At the end of these
current regulations
we might look at
incorporating hybrid
into the next’
f a touring car series promoter had a wish list it would
read something like this. Full grids; lots of marques; close
competition; stable and cost-effective regulations; a long
term TV deal; and grandstands packed with spectators. But
for Alan Gow, long time boss of BTCC promoter TOCA – and also
the outgoing chairman of the MSA and president of the FIA
Touring Car Commission – this is not so much wish list as reality.
The BTCC now hosts 10 car makes (with Alfa Romeo
returning as a dealer team entry with Handy Motorsport next
year to make it 11); at Rockingham qualifying it had 27 cars
covered by a second; and it has crowds of 30 to 40,000 at its
events, plus TV coverage that’s locked in until the end of 2022.
Then there’s the highly successful NGTC regulations, which are
in the first year of a five year extension.
It’s actually this last, the regulations, that Gow believes
provides the bedrock to the BTCC’s success, largely due to
the pack of standard components that’s at its heart. ‘It’s cost
effective and it gives everyone an equal chance at success,
and that’s the most important thing,’ Gow says. ‘It doesn’t rely
on an expensive homologation process of standard cars, and
it doesn’t rely on production components, so it’s not about
whether one car has got a better suspension system than
another, or whatever. It takes out all those variables and gives
every car an equal chance of success.’
Which suits the teams, and also the manufacturers that back
many of them, usually on a sliding scale of works involvement.
‘Some of the teams are manufacturer backed,’ Gow says. ‘But
there is no such thing as a race team run out of the factory
anymore. We have teams that are financially and technically
supported by manufactures, such as BMW and Honda, but I
can’t think of a touring car manufacturer who runs a team from
inside the factory walls – except maybe Audi in DTM. But then
Mercedes [DTM] farmed all their stuff out to HWA. It’s very rare
that a manufacturer has an in-house race team.’
And for those teams it’s the costs that keeps them in the
BTCC. ‘The cost of competing hasn’t gone up since NGTC
started [iaround £400,000 a car per season] because the cost of
the cars and parts haven’t gone up,’ Gow says. ‘Running a car is
always based on the cost of parts, the cost of tyres, the cost of
fuel, the cost of brakes; they all remain the same. In our contract
with our suppliers – like RML, AP and Xtrac – they are fixed on
the prices over five years. So it can only go up by inflation.’
TCR threat?
But while the NGTC concept has worked well, it’s not the only
show in town when it comes to touring car categories, and
next year TCR, with its manufacturer-friendly customer racing
approach, is coming to the UK with a brand new British series.
Some have seen this as a challenge to the BTCC’s hegemony
when it comes to top-line touring car racing in Britain. Gow,
however, does not see it as a threat, and responds to TCR’s claim
that it has big grids for next year already with: ‘No they haven’t.
To be honest I’ll be surprised if they can find that many people
willing to spend £200,000 on doing a season of TCR, which are
basically club races.
‘I think you will find there’s simply no room for it,’ he adds.
‘I don’t think it will have any traction, because it’s not cheap. If
you have a look at the costs of running the TCR races, teams
are quoting £200,000 to do 14 races. Well that’s the same price
as doing the BTCC [33 races over 11 events], but without the
spectators and without the TV the BTCC has.’
Gow also believes TCR has no place in the UK anyway, as
it’s not the sort of place it will thrive. ‘It does well everywhere
Honda, MG and BMW battle it out at
Knockhill. Plenty of marques and stands full
of spectators are hallmarks of the BTCC

Team works
Gow will not mind that the manufacturers are not heavily
involved, though, as a reliance on works teams has bitten the
BTCC before, during its Super Touring era, when costs went
through the roof and many of them then departed. ‘That’s the
same in any series,’ Gow says. ‘LMP1 is going through that exact
same process now, and so is DTM. When you’re reliant on pure
manufacturer participation that’s always a problem, because
understandably manufacturers go in and out of a programme,
no different than them going in and out of advertising on a
certain TV programme. They will change their marketing, they
will change their advertising, they will change their PR focus,
they don’t do the same thing forever.
‘But that’s why our regulations are very good,’ Gow adds.
‘Because they are team based regulations, and the teams
become the constructors. The teams homologate the car, if you
like, so it’s based on the teams, and the teams do all the work,
and the manufacturers then end up supporting them.’

88 www.racecar-engineering.com NOVEMBER 2017

where there is no strong domestic touring car championship,’
he says. ‘All it is doing is plugging a hole, in those countries that
don’t have a touring car championship.’
In fact, Gow believes that no touring car formula can
offer a truly global solution, a one spec fits all sort of thing,
because different countries or continents have different car
cultures, which he maintains has a strong influence on the
type of tin tops people like to watch.
‘You can’t take one global view because touring car means
different things in different regions,’ Gow says. ‘In Australia
touring cars are all about big V8 saloons, in Germany it means
much more hi-tech coupes, in Britain it means what we have
in the BTCC, you will never find one form of it to fit the whole
world, it’s a cultural thing. In Britain we drive cars that are about
the same size as those we are racing in the BTCC, in America
they don’t. What people watch is not only about motorsport,
but what they actually drive on the road.’
Incidentally, Gow actually believes that DTM is more
hi-tech GT than pukka touring cars and he thinks that total
convergence between it and Super GT – basically agreeing on a
common engine package – is just a matter of time.
Hybrid future?
Of course, car culture everywhere is now changing. Under
current proposals, the UK and other countries in Europe are set
to ban new petrol and diesel cars sales by 2040, so the British-
based championship will need to think about electric, and
certainly hybrid, sooner rather than later.
‘What we race has to reflect what’s happening on the road,’
Gow says. ‘All technology gets cheaper every year. When there’s
a standard hybrid that we can attach to our cars, and where it’s
cost effective to do so, then we would look at it. We certainly
wouldn’t do it yet, it’s too early, but at the end of these current
regulations you would look at incorporating it into the next –
which after this year is in another four years.’
Gow would also welcome an electric series on to the
TOCA package of support races, he says. ‘There are none on
the horizon at the moment but then going forward all of
motorsport is going to have to embrace what is happening on
the road, so some form of electrification, with a hybrid system
and all of this stuff, is obviously the way forward, and it will get
cheaper and easier to do as each year passes.’
Whether the next regulations have hybrid or not, the next
big challenge for the BTCC is getting them right once more.
RACE MOVES
XPB
Toro Rosso technical director James Key has extended
his contract with the Italian Formula 1 team. The
length of the extension has not been disclosed. Key
joined Toro Rosso from Sauber in 2012, after entering
F1 with Jordan in 1998 and staying on as it morphed
through its Midland, Spyker and Force India identities.
He left Force India to join Sauber in 2010.
Adrian Newey is to make his North
American race driving debut in a car he
designed and ran nearly 35 years ago in
the Classic 24 Hour at Daytona in early
November. Newey will be competing
in one of his earliest projects, a March
83G Chevrolet, which is the same car
he tended as it raced to a second-place
finish at the Daytona 24 hours in 1983.
Martin C Klein is the new head of Recaro
Automotive Seating Branding and
Marketing and the Recaro Performance
Car Seating business. Klein replaces
Markus Kussmaul in the role, the latter
having decided to leave Recaro to pursue
other career opportunities. Klein has over
25 years of professional experience in
the automotive business and has held
various leadership positions at Daimler in
both Germany and the United States.
Steve Horne has stepped down as
chairman of the Supercars Commission
– the body which manages and oversees
the racing rules, regulations and formats
and then passes on its recommendations
to the board of Australia’s premier
motorsport category. The former IndyCar
team owner has been the Commission’s
chair for the past four years.
Matt Bishop, the McLaren Technology
Group’s chief communications officer
and group media, content and
communications director, is to leave
McLaren after 10 years with the firm.
NOVEMBER 2017 www.racecar-engineering.com 89
Supercars outfit Prodrive Racing
Australia has recruited NASCAR
engine expert John Grove. Grove
comes to Prodrive from Toyota Racing
Development, where he worked on
its NASCAR engine programme. The
Australian already has experience in
Supercars, having worked for Triple
Eight’s engine supplier KRE before he
moved to the US two years ago.
NASCAR mechanic Adam Wright was
killed in a car accident in North Carolina,
in late August. Wright (33) was the son
of Pete Wright, a long-time NASCAR
crewman and a member of Terry
Labonte’s 1984 Cup-winning team.
Gilles Simon, who was a consultant
with the Honda F1 engine programme
until just before the start of this season,
has now rejoined the FIA where he is its
new technical director. Engine specialist
Simon has previously worked at Ferrari
and Renault in F1 and was the FIA’s
technical and powertrain director from
2010 until a switch to the stillborn Pure
F1 engine project a year later. He became
involved with Honda in 2015.
Former IndyCar crew member Hardy
Allen has died. Allen worked in the
1960s and early 1970s for Dan Gurney’s
All American Racers organisation before
moving to AJ Foyt Enterprises. He will
be remembered as something of a
trailblazer, as one of the first African-
American men working in the sport.
The Motorsport Industry Association
(MIA) is once again holding its successful
School of Race Mechanics next year.
Kicking off in January 2018, the course
will host 20 students over a two-week,
120-hour period, and will be held at
the Silverstone race circuit. The top
five students are guaranteed a work
placement with a race team for the
2018 season and for those remaining
the MIA aims to secure industry
opportunities. For more go to www.
schoolofracemechanics.co.uk
NASCAR Cup Series crew chief Mike
Wheeler was fined $50,000 and
suspended for two races after the
No.11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota he tends
was found to be running with a rear
suspension that contravened the rules
at the Darlington Raceway round of the
series. Chris Gabehart (the crew chief
on JGR’s No. 20 Xfinity Series car) was to
replace Wheeler during the suspension.
BUSINESS – PEOPLE

Team bosses worried about XPB

too many Formula 1 races
Formula 1 team chiefs have said
an over-expanded F1 calendar
could push their staff to the limit
and might lead to them having to
hire more personnel, which will in
turn push up costs.
Chase Carey, CEO of XPB
the Formula 1 Group, has
recently gone on record
as saying he’s looking at
increasing the number
of races, possibly up to
25 a season, in future
years – this year there are
20 grands prix with 21 set
for next season.
But Red Bull team Christian Horner thinks
principal, Christian adding more races could
Horner, said he believes push personnel to the limit
there will already be too
many races in 2018: ‘Look at next
year’s calendar; we’ve got a triple
header followed by a double-header
with a weekend gap in between,
so already the calendar [I feel] is at
saturation point; 21 races is, I think,
the absolute limit.
‘To go beyond that, I think we’re
pushing teams, we are pushing
engineers, we’re pushing travelling
staff too far. So then you’re going to
end up in rotational shifts. As soon
as you do that then the costs will
become exponential with it because
you’ll end up with a much bigger
workforce to accommodate that.’
Renault
managing director
Cyril Abiteboul
agreed, adding:
‘I think it’s all
about quality
over quantity and
I would focus on
quality rather than
quantity. I think we
need races that are
absolutely iconic,
huge races … In
addition [there is]
the economic factor which should
not be underestimated with the cost
to F1 and all the teams travelling.’
But Haas team principal
Guenther Steiner thinks more
grands prix could work, if changes
were made elsewhere: ‘One way
would be to make a longer season,
with also shorter race weekends,
shorter events,’ he said.
RACE MOVES – continued
Dave O’Neill has left the post of sporting
director at the Haas F1 operation, which he
joined in 2014 with the brief of setting up the
team in readiness for its debut season in 2015.
He has now taken on a role with new firm DKR
Technologies, alongside former Red Bull chief
mechanic Kenny Handkammer.
Rory McDonnell has been
appointed head of sales and
marketing at UK sportscar
maker Lister. McDonnell
has a background in project
management and has worked on
several high profile international
Sue Roethel, a long-time chief
steward for the SCCA, has passed
away. Roethel was one of only
two SCCA members to
have earned all three of the
organisation’s top awards –
the Barnato, the Morrell, and
McGill awards – and is said to
have been the first woman to
take on the chief steward role
at a professional motor racing
meeting in the United States.
Greg Ives, the crew chief on the
No.88 Hendrick Motorsports car in
the NASCAR Cup Series, was fined
$20,000 and suspended for one
race after the Chevrolet he tends
was found to be running with the
lug nuts improperly installed at
the Darlington Raceway round
of the championship.
Formula E champion driver
Lucas di Grassi has been
named CEO of Roborace, the
autonomous race series that’s
to support FE in future seasons.
Roborace demonstrated its
DevBot test car at Marrakech,
Buenos Aires, Berlin, New York and
Montreal during the 2016/17 FE
season and aims to continue its

OBITUARY – Don Nichols projects in organisations such as

Former Shadow Formula 1 boss Don
Nichols has died at the age of 92.
Once a soldier in the US Army,
American Nichols served in both WWII
and the Korean War before settling in
Japan where he established a business
selling American tyres and was also
involved in Japanese motorsport,
including playing a part in setting up the
Fuji race circuit.
Returning to
the States in the
1960s he founded
automotive
company AVS,
which went on
to build often The DN5 was Shadow’s best F1 car, taking Arrows FA1, which
innovative CanAm two pole positions during the 1975 season Nichols won – Nichols
cars, including the
radical Shadow Mk1 – known as ‘tiny tyres’ the Shadow operation to Teddy Yip’s
because of its kart-like wheels.
A tie up with fuel company Universal
Oil Products (UOP) led to Formula 1 in
1973. The team shot to prominence at
the start to the 1975 season when its
DN5 looked to be the class of the field,
but after a couple of pole positions the
car lost its competitive edge, although
Tom Pryce did win the non-championship
Race of Champions that year.
There was one grand prix win, in
1977, when Alan Jones took a fortuitous
victory at a wet Austrian GP, but the team
was never quite the same after it lost its
UOP funding at the close of the 1976
season. Shadow also won the CanAm
championship in 1974.
With the core of
the workforce splitting
off to form Arrows in
1978 – which led to a
copyright infringement
court case over the
eventually sold
Theodore concern in 1980.
A mysterious, quiet character,
there were rumours that Nichols had a
background in espionage – something
hardly dispelled by the Shadow team’s
logo of a cloaked man …
Don Nichols 1924-2017.
Siemens and the BBC. He has a
development throughout
the 2017/18 season.
keen interest in historic racing.
Roy Lunn – who is known for his
NASCAR operation Joe Gibbs part in Ford’s GT40 project, which
Racing (JGR) is no longer he oversaw – has died at the age
responsible for the pit crews on of 92. An accomplished engineer,
the No.77 and No.78 Furniture and also an RAF pilot during
Row Racing Toyotas in the Cup WWII, Lunn was responsible
series. It previously provided for a number of well-known
crews as part of a technical automotive and motorsport
tie-up. However, while decisions projects, particularly for Ford
for the Furniture Row pit crews in the US in the 1960s.
will now be made in-house,
the crew members will still NASCAR Cup outfit Joe Gibbs
continue to train at JGR. Racing switched the pit crews
from its No.19 car to its No.18
Williams deputy team principal car as the series went into its
Claire Williams will not be Playoffs period in September.
attending any more races this year The No.18 Toyota, driven by Kyle
as at the time of writing she was Busch, qualified for the playoffs,
due to give birth. She has said that but teammate Daniel Suarez,
she will be working from home for who is the driver of the No.19
the remainder of the season. JGR entry, did not.
u Moving to a great new job in motorsport and want the world to
know about it? Or has your motorsport company recently taken
on an exciting new prospect? Then email with your information to
Mike Breslin at mike@bresmedia.co.uk

90 www.racecar-engineering.com NOVEMBER 2017

E info@dockingengineering.com

Motorsport Essentials Gauge Fittings Oil, Fuel & Water Hoses

Silicone 3 PLY & 4 PLY & Linkage Parts & Suspension Brake & Clutch Hoses,
Vacuum Hoses Rod Ends Spares & Fittings

Hose Clips, Joiners & Fittings Fan Thermostat Switch Kits Electrical Accessories

Suppliers of Race, Fast Road, Classic & Commercial Products

Tel: 01933 778335 www.LMAautoparts.co.uk

Fax: 01933 778341 sales@LMAautoparts.co.uk
BUSINESS – NEWS UPDATE

European Formula 3 to go single-make in 2019

F3’s long history as an open formula is to come to an The FIA has confirmed that the flagship
end in 2019. Dallara’s ubiquitous F312 is pictured Formula 3 European Championship is to be
a spec series from 2019 onwards.
This long-expected change was voted in
at a World Motor Sport Council meeting in
late September. Although it has not yet
been confirmed, it’s believed the new
single-make category will take its place on
the Formula 1 support bill alongside F2,
probably replacing GP3, in 2019.
The car will be powered by a 350bhp
engine, a big hike on F3’s current 200bhp, and
the FIA has invited racecar constructors to
tender for the chassis contract.
While Formula 3 has always nominally
been an open formula it’s effectively been a
Dallara lock-out for many years now, with the
occasional interloper such as Mygale, Lola-
Dome and most recently Arttech..
Grids for the new championship will be
limited to 24 cars with eight teams running
three cars each, while testing will be restricted
in an effort to keep budgets down – current
European Formula 3 base costs are between
€600,000 and €750,000 a season.
There is also to be new regional F3
categories, which will be similar in concept
to FIA Formula 4, where each series would
be one-make, though using its own chassis/
engine package. These are to be in the 200
to 240bhp-plus power range, very much like
the MSV-run BRDC Formula 3 Championship
in the UK and the recently announced US F3
series (see foot of this page).

SEEN: Megane TCR
Vukovic Motorsport has unveiled the Renault
Megane TCR that has been designed and
built by the Swiss-based company with the
blessing of Renault Sport. ‘The car has been
developed to optimise the chassis qualities
of the production model for an ultimate
racing use,’ it tells us. ‘The combination of
the standard suspension layout with the
chassis optimisation on torsion and strength
provides a large set-up potential.’
The outfit has attracted a number of
technical partners, it says, including Bosch
Motorsport for the electronics; 3 MO for
the transmission; KW for the suspension;
OZ Wheels for the rims and Lehmann
Motorentechnik for the development of
the 1.8-litre race spec engine.
BMW launches M8 GTE for WEC, IMSA and Le Mans
BMW used the Frankfurt show in September to
launch its much-anticipated M8 GTE, which is to be QUICK SPEC
campaigned in next year’s GTE Pro division of the
World Endurance Championship, in the IMSA series BMW M8 GTE
in the US, and at the Le Mans 24 hours. Engine: 90-degree V8 with BMW TwinPower turbo;
The car will make its race debut at the 24 Hours 3981cc; 500bhp at 7000rpm.
of Daytona in 2018 in late January. Body: Composite body with carbon core and DMSB-
‘The BMW M8 GTE is our new GT flagship and will go approved safety roll cage; CFRP outer shell with
quick-change concept.
head to head with the strong opposition in this sector,’ said
BMW Motorsport director Jens Marquardt. ‘The FIA WEC Chassis and suspension: Double wishbones on front
and rear axle; 4-way adjustable shock absorbers at
and the IMSA series in North America are a top competitive front and rear; anti-roll bars.
environment for our new challenger.
Transmission: 6-speed sequential motorsport gearbox;
‘With the BMW M8 GTE, we are bringing cutting-edge electric paddleshift system; limited slip differential.
technology to the top international class of GT racing,
whilst at the same time tying in with our tradition at
Le Mans.’ Marquardt added. ‘The development of the
BMW M8 GTE is on schedule, and we can hardly wait to
see the car challenging for victories in 2018.’
The M8 GTE marks a return to Le Mans for BMW, which
was last seen on the grid at La Sarthe in 2011, when
there was an M3 GT2 in the field. Its best result at the
great race was in 1999, when Yannick Dalmas, Joachim
Winkelhock and Pierluigi Martini won in a BMW V12 LMR.
The McLaren F1 GTR, powered by a BMW engine, had
previously triumphed in 1995.

Plans for all-new US Formula 3 series announced by SCCA and Onroak

The organisers of the US Formula 4 Championship
are set to launch a new American Formula 3 series
along the lines of the FIA’s new vision for regional
F3 (see lead story, top of page).
The championship will use an upgrade of the
current Crawford/Onroak chassis – called a Ligier
Crawford JS F3 – and a 270bhp Honda Performance
Development version of the new Honda Civic Type-R
turbocharged K20 engine.
The series is to be promoted by SCCA Pro Racing, as
is US F4, and the car will be officially unveiled at the US
Grand Prix in Austin on October 19.
‘SCCA Pro Racing’s introduction of an FIA F3 race
series is a great opportunity for our partners and SCCA
Pro Racing to reset the current paradigm of open
wheel racing in North America,’ said Steve Oseth, vice
president/general manager of SCCA Pro Racing. ‘Its
introduction, combined with the steps above and
below the F3 series, will work to greatly lower the
running costs of open-wheel racecars.’
Ligier Crawford JS F3 is
based on US F4 car
Max Crawford, general manager of Onroak
Automotive North America, said: ‘The F3 race series
will feature the next generation of all-new FIA racecars,
the Ligier Crawford JS F3, designed and manufactured
in the United States, at Onroak Automotive North
America’s headquarters in Denver, North Carolina. The
Ligier Crawford JS F3 is the next step up from Onroak
Automotive NA’s successful F4 car.
‘The design team in Denver, NC, has worked
comprehensively with the FIA on implementing all
the requirements for the new generation of Formula 3
racecars, and this has enabled us to produce the
new car at a level of performance and safety that
leads the world,’ Crawford added.

92 www.racecar-engineering.com NOVEMBER 2017

...FINE TUNED TO
MEET Y YOUR
OUR NEEDS!

· Over 75 models of sports seats in our dedicated show room

· Europe’s largest range of Harnesses, roll cages and safety equipment
· Bespoke seats, trims and re-trimming services available
· Specialist in-store service to ensure you pick the best seat to meet your needs.

NEW - Make GSM your first stop for all your race wear needs

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Visit: www.gsmperformance.co.uk to learn about all our products and services

GSM Performance Ltd
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T +44 (0)115 9893488 E sales@GSMPerformance.co.uk

www.gsmperformance.co.uk
BUSINESS – AUTOSPORT INTERNATIONAL SHOW

Opportunity knocks
If you’re looking for a career in motorsport engineering
then ASI in January is simply a must-attend event

T
he face of motor racing is changing
rapidly with the arrival of electric and
hybrid systems in the past four years.
In Formula 1, the World Endurance
Championship, Formula E and the new Electric
GT Championship, which will start in 2018, it
appears that this technology is here to stay,
and that means a whole new skill set to be
learned for budding engineers.
For instance, in the German Formula
Student competition in the summer of this
year, engineers were already working
on driverless car technology, and the UK
competition next year will feature a category
for autonomous cars, too.
That is not to say that the traditional
technology is going to become less relevant.
There are huge gains in efficiency that need to
be found in the internal combustion engine,
and CEOs of major car manufacturers have
highlighted that there is still a future for
gasoline and diesel technology.
All of this is just in the drivetrain technology,
but throughout each racecar there are also
opportunities to work with new materials and
technologies, and companies are looking for
young and talented engineers to do just this.
the industry will share their advice and offer
insights. Motorsport Jobs will be just one of the
exhibitors which will be taking the stage over
the course of the event, talking about how to
recruit in the digital age.
Meanwhile, throughout the Autosport
Engineering Show, held once again in
conjunction with us, Racecar Engineering, top
firms will be in attendance not only looking to
do business, but also looking for new young
talent. As a student or as an engineer looking
for a career in motorsport, don’t forget to
bring your CV, business cards, and make sure
you’ve studied the show layout to see where

Motorsport companies Recruitment drive

the primary companies you want to visit
are located. Bring your best sales pitch, too,

are looking for the So it’s good to report that at the Autosport
International Show, visitors considering a future
and make sure you have knowledge of the
companies you want to speak to.

very best young and

in motorsport or performance engineering Kate Woodley, show director, Autosport
will find a careers and education area, in International, said: ‘With the motorsport

talented engineers
partnership with a new recruitment platform, industry employing close to 50,000 people
Motorsport Jobs. Each year, universities, throughout the UK, this chance for prospective
colleges and specialist training companies alike students and employees to meet such a wide
AUTOSPORT INTERNATIONAL all offer advice on how to find a route into the range of companies and further education
11 to 14 JANUARY 2018 industry. New for 2018, this area of the show providers is invaluable.’
will also incorporate the Talk Shop stage, where For a full list of exhibitors, visit the official
PUBLIC OPENING TIMES:
Saturday: 9:00am to 6:00pm experts from a range of disciplines within website www.autosportinternational.com.
Sunday: 9:00am to 6:00pm
NEW FOR 2018, child ticket prices for those under 16 have
been reduced. Full ticket price information is as follows:
Standard: Adult £35pp, Child (6-15yrs) £17
Ticket includes entry into Autosport International, the
Live Action Arena and Performance Car Show (children
under five years of age go for free). Ticket price includes
the £2 booking fee per ticket.
Paddock Pass: Adult £46pp, Child (6-15yrs) £27.50pp
Ticket includes entry into Autosport International, the Live
Action Arena and Performance Car Show (children under
five years of age go for free). Access to backstage Paddock
area in the Live Action Arena, Paddock Guide and access
to driver autograph sessions.
Family Pass: £87 (2x Adult and 2x Child of 6-15yrs).
Ticket includes entry into Autosport International, the Live
Action Arena and Performance Car Show. Valid for standard
tickets only. The price includes booking fee charges.
VIP Club: £127 (no VIP Child ticket available).
Ticket includes entry into Autosport International, the
Live Action Arena and Performance Car Show. In addition
VIP Club includes free parking, seat at VIP enclosure in
the Live Action Arena, complimentary drinks and canapes,
VIP gift bag and much more.
For more, visit www.autosportinternational.com

Autosport Engineering is a great place to meet future employers. But don’t forget to take your CV and business cards

94 www.racecar-engineering.com NOVEMBER 2017

The Performance Car Show tunes up
Once again the Performance Car Show area
will feature a range of tuning industry-
leading exhibitors who will showcase the
latest products and technology, including
numerous companies new to the event.
Among the companies attending is
Knight Industries, which is the first UK
company to offer both performance
tuning and body styling upgrades for
the MG3 and MG6.
Meanwhile, Newquay-based Celtic
Tuning specialises in the development of
engine management software, and will
also be at the show, while joining it in the
new show area will be Steeda UK, which
provides performance parts, tuning and
upgrades for the Ford Mustang, Focus ST
and RS, Mondeo and Fiesta.
Also exhibiting is Magic Motorsport,
from Italy, one of the world leaders in
electronic programmers for ECU and
TCU repair and tuning.
Keep up to date with the latest content
at www.performancecarshow.com

The Performance Car Show, which runs alongside Autosport International, highlights the work of the tuning industry and is packed with very cool cars

Exhibitors and products at ASI

Advanced Fuel Systems OBP Motorsport Alcon

This specialist fuel safety cell manufacturer
creates products for the marine, motorsport,
aerospace and defence sectors.
One of its most notable recent projects is the
monolithic FIA-approved fuel cells seen in the
Bloodhound SSC car. The supersonic car, which has
been designed to break the 1000mph barrier, has
four of Advanced Fuel Systems safety cells, each
containing 550 litres of jet fuel. The pumps are
capable of delivering fuel at a rate of 20 litres
per second to the jet engine.
Uniquely, Advanced Fuel Systems
simultaneously manufacture both composite
materials and finished fuel safety cells, so the
shape of the cell can be moulded and optimised to
customers’ exact requirements. All current products
offer improvements in durability, increased
flexibility and weight reduction.
Visit Advanced Fuel Systems on Stand E481
and read more about Advanced Fuel Systems
pursuit of breaking records at:
www.advancedfuelsystems.com/recordbreaking
OBP Motorsport is now offering new aluminium
fixed and adjustable camber top mounts.
The high-performance premium motorsport
parts specialist has racing in its blood, providing
parts like the V2 bias brake assemblies in the
Mini Challenge cars, right through to electric car
pedal boxes for Formula E teams and the Pro-
Race Pedal Box in the VUHL 05RR raced by four-
time Formula 1 champion Sebastian Vettel at
this year’s Race of Champions.
The latest top mounts from OBP Motorsport are
manufactured out of carbon steel with a PTFE lined
spherical bearing, which replaces the standard
rubber mounts, improving the feel and precision of
cars on track, the company tells us.
There is a choice of well-crafted 10mm,
12mm or 14mm Inserts created from lightweight
aerospace grade aluminium.
To find out more about this interesting
motorsport company visit OBP Motorsport at
Stand 7545 at Autosport International or check out
all its kit at www.obpltd.com
Highly acclaimed motorsport brake and clutch
company Alcon has launched a brand new
bespoke armoured vehicle brake caliper. The
new CIR55 has been designed and developed
to fit 8x8 type military vehicles operating at 30 to
40-plus tonne, incorporating a custom-designed
eight-piston, four-pad configuration with an
option for either 60mm or 64mm pistons.
The UK-based company has been sought out
by global special forces manufacturers to provide
bespoke material for the military industry, these
companies include BAE, Ricardo and Jankel.
Increasing braking performance and reducing
weight, the CIR55 is a cost-effective alternative
to other products on the market, Alcon says. The
bespoke caliper immediately offers a weight
reduction of 50kg per vehicle and upgraded
cooling. It boasts 11.5 per cent larger piston area;
34 per cent more pad area; 33 per cent additional
torque capacity; and all delivered with a seven per
cent weight saving over the nearest market leading
alternative, we’re told. www.alcon.co.uk

NOVEMBER 2017 www.racecar-engineering.com 95

BUSINESS – PRODUCTS

Pit equipment
Gunning for fast wheel changes
Sector expert Paoli has brought
a new wheel gun on to the market,
called the Hurricane.
The company says: ‘The partnership
with highly skilled technicians and top
racing teams has allowed the development
of an innovative, greatly performing and
technologically advanced product.’
The Hurricane has been designed using
CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics),
which, Paoli tells us, has allowed it not
only to sharpen up the performance of the
motor, but also to create a unique, fresh
and well-finished design.
There’s some nice attention to
detail, too, particularly in the use of new
technologies in the production area,
such as in precision casting, which is
intended to assure internal channels
dimension repeatability and to guarantee
homogeneity in performance.
Performance on loosening nuts
has increased by 10 per cent with
the Hurricane, Paoli tells us, while on
the tightening side it has remained
intentionally unchanged compared to
the previous models, in order to avoid
excessive tightening.
The new Hurricane is also suitable
for Paoli’s new Fast Shift system, which
allows an immediate reversal to save time
between the removal of one wheel and its
replacement with a new one.
The selection of materials such as
carbon, aluminium and aeronautical steel
makes Hurricane a fast and extremely
reliable wheel gun, Paoli says.
www.paoli.net Electronics
Get yourself connected
Souriau 8STA connectors are communications and harnesses.
designed for applications where Lane Motorsport can supply
high performance, small size and 8STA connectors, caps, gaskets,
light weight are key. nut plates and heat shrink boots on
They are used extensively in very short lead times.
motorsport for engine control, www.lanemotorsport.com

Fire suppression
Safety in numbers
Lifeline’s fire suppression systems for
2018 and beyond puts driver safety into
a new dimension, the company tells us.
With even faster and more efficient
deployment of extinguishant, all systems
Set-up equipment
Wizzard kit
The innovative laser based wheel
alignment system Setup Wizzard from CP
have been tested to conform to either Autosport ensures perfect suspension
FIA Technical list numbers 16 or to 52, measurement of toe, camber, corner
making them the most advanced in weights and ride height at the race track.
the world, Lifeline says. It can be used in almost every possible
www.lifeline-fire.co.uk racing series there is, says CP Autosport, from
GT3 to TCR, and from rallying to Formula E.
www.cp-autosport.com

Engine performance
The gold standard for cold air
To assist with keeping your engine’s intake
charge as cold as possible DEI has introduced
Heat management the Cool Cover Gold air tube cover kit.
Cool Cover Gold will fit air intake tubes up
to 28in (71.1cm) long and 3in to 4in (7.62cm
to 10.16cm) in diameter.

Taking the heat Cool Cover Gold is manufactured from high

Hauck Heat Treatment provides a comprehensive range of
heat and surface treatments to the engineering industry
from multiple national and international locations.
It holds most major quality approvals which enables it to
support customers in specialist markets including aerospace,
motorsport and automotive. Check out its website at:
www.hauckht.co.uk
temperature metalised polyimide lamination,
bonded to a robust heat-treated glass fibre base
material that will protect and keep components
cool in the hot engine compartment environment.
Cool Cover Gold features a hook and loop
closure along the open edges for easy installation
and is able to reflect direct heat up to 800degF
(427degC) making it the perfect choice to keep air
intakes cool and protected, DEI tells us.
It is easy to cut or trim as necessary and at
just .031in (0.7874cm) thick takes up negligible
space around the intake tube.
Cool Cover Gold has been tested and proved
to FSTM 191.5100 and ASTM D1117 standards.
You can order this as part number 010486
at $83.55 plus shipping and import tax directly
from DEI in the USA, or simply find your nearest
dealer on the website below
www.designengineering.com

96 www.racecar-engineering.com NOVEMBER 2017

Set-up equipment
Plating up
Here’s the RFX Wireless
Precision Hub Plate Scale
from Intercomp.
The scale measures
corner weights with a bolt-
on hub plate. Consistent
and repeatable
measurements are a reality
thanks to its ball transfer
bearings, which allow for up
to 360 degrees of rotation.
www.intercomp.com

Sensors
Izze too hot?
Introducing Izze Racing,
a US-based motorsport
electronics manufacturer.
It specialises in the
design, production, and
distribution of multi-channel
infrared tyre and brake
temperature sensors. These
have up to 16 channels per
sensor at 32Hz via CAN and
come either as a fully sealed
aluminium enclosure ($300)
or as PCB assembly ($175).
www.izzeracing.com

Electronics
Deutsch tech
The Deutsch ASDD Series
connectors from TE
Connectivity (TE) are a
revolution in motorsport
connector design, TE says.
They have almost double
the number of contacts
Fluid transfer
Right tools for the job
Aeroflow is renowned for
its premium quality, high
performance fluid transfer
products, which use lightweight
alloys in their construction. It now
provide the tools to fit them.
Aeroflow components are
capable of repeated assembly and
disassembly without degradation,
providing these correct tools are
used. The standard or double-ended
3D printing
The tough stuff
of standard equivalent
shell sizes, we’re told, and Windform SP composite that can withstand the loads
were developed to bring material is the latest thing and vibrations of high
high density and high in 3D printing technology. speeds and rough tracks.
performance into the smaller Windform SP is a carbon It shows how far the
wire sizes racing teams prefer. fibre reinforced composite technology has come that
www.te.com material for functional 3D now this can be used for
printing applications. It is a applications such as rallying.
very light and strong material CRP-group.com
wrenches provide a perfect fit
and are made from materials with
the same hardness rating as the
components they are designed for,
so they won’t mark your fittings.
All Aeroflow aluminium
wrenches are hard anodised black
and size stamped. The spanners and
wrenches are available individually
or as a seven-piece set.
www.aeroflowperformance.eu

NOVEMBER 2017 www.racecar-engineering.com 97

 BUMP STOP

PIT CREW
All change at the top
I
Editor t wasn’t widely reported, but the departure from the legacy will go far beyond the 2017 season, however.
Andrew Cotton
@RacecarEd FIA of Bernard Niclot, the highly-regarded now former As FIA head of Technical, he has also been in a key position
Deputy editor
Gemma Hatton
head of Technical at the organisation, is big news. Right to try to sort out the future of the engine regulations in
@RacecarEngineer now, Formula 1 and the WEC are looking to finalise far- both F1 and LMP. His successor has plenty of experience
News editor and chief sub editor
Mike Breslin
reaching regulations that will bring stability and which will with hybrids and future technologies. Simon worked with
Design be embraced by teams and manufacturers, and this now falls FIA president Jean Todt at Ferrari in 1993 in the engine and
Dave Oswald
under the guidance of Gilles Simon. electronics department; under Todt investigated new energies
Technical consultant
Peter Wright Niclot joined the FIA in 2010 and was responsible for and environmentally friendly technology in motorsport in the
Contributors
Mike Blanchet, Sam Collins (Associate
ushering in the hybrid regulations that former president FIA, and then went to work for engine manufacturer PURE,
Editor), Ricardo Divila, Eric Jacuzzi, Simon Max Mosley considered critical for manufacturers to meet although its unit never made it into the sport. He was then
McBeath, Danny Nowlan, Mark Ortiz,
Marshall Pruett, Martin Sharp, Don Taylor their corporate responsibilities. Whether or not that sop to hired by Honda but recently parted with the manufacturer to
Photography the manufacturers was actually the right thing for the sport take up his place in the FIA. On paper, he is an ideal candidate
James Moy
Deputy managing director is a much-debated topic. For some manufacturers, such and is clearly well connected. The FIA did not reveal why
Steve Ross Tel +44 (0) 20 7349 3730
Email steve.ross@chelseamagazines.com
as Porsche, the link between race and road has become Niclot left and had not even prepared a statement regarding
Advertisement Manager strong, particularly in terms of personnel. In terms of actual his departure, only the arrival of Simon into post.
Lauren Mills Tel +44 (0) 20 7349 3796
Email lauren.mills@
technology, and the improvement of racing, the energy Formula 1’s 2021 engine rules are coming along, according
chelseamagazines.com recovery systems have taken a back seat and are not reported, to sources. It seems that twin turbo 1.6-litre engines, minus
Senior Sales Executive
Oliver Blalock Tel +44 (0) 20 7349 3775 except in case of failure. the exhaust energy recovery
Yet, perversely it could be
An amalgamation of system (MGU-H) and with more
Email oliver.blalock@
chelseamagazines.com
Circulation Manager Daniel Webb that the hybrid regulations, from the MGU-K, while not

LMP1 and F1 engine

Tel +44 (0) 20 7349 3710
Email daniel.webb@chelseamagazines.com
and the speed of change from decided are likely. Fuel flow will
Publisher Simon Temlett ‘conventional’ power units to a be increased, although how that
Managing director Paul Dobson more powerful electric element, will fit with the fuel limitation
Editorial
Racecar Engineering, Chelsea Magazine
Company, Jubilee House, 2 Jubilee Place,
may have caught the FIA
by surprise. The rapid rise
rules is unlikely, but it that plays a factor in certain
races is yet to be revealed. But

is clearly on the table

London, SW3 3TQ
Tel +44 (0) 20 7349 3700 of manufacturer interest in the key for them will be to
Advertising
Racecar Engineering, Chelsea Magazine
Formula E, the announcement of improve the racing while also
Company, Jubilee House, 2 Jubilee Place, plug-in recharging technology attracting new manufacturers.
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Fax +44 (0) 20 7349 3701
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capability in LMP1 and F1, Dieselgate in 2015 has certainly finally amalgamate the F1 and WEC LMP1 engine regulations.
Tel: +44 (0)1858 438443 changed the look and feel of world championship racing. Could Niclot’s legacy be that manufacturers can, finally, switch
Email: racecarengineering@
subscription.co.uk Niclot was charged with bringing in the regulations to F1 between programmes or, better yet, run parallel programmes
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chelsea/help and the WEC, and with Fabrice Lom, they also brought in fuel and amortise the cost? Under Bernie Ecclestone’s rule, this
Post: Racecar Engineering, Subscriptions flow meters, introduced a new engine concept to F1, as well could never have happened. There is only so much sport that
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Seymour International Ltd, 2 East manufacturers would hit the 8MJ top limit so quickly. Most to history, and manufacturers actually encouraged to run
Poultry Avenue, London EC1A 9PT
Tel +44 (0) 20 7429 4000 recently, Niclot was given the task of implementing the 1km other programmes using the same powertrain?
Fax +44 (0) 20 7429 4001
Email info@seymour.co.uk on electric power at Le Mans each stint, but that plan was not Clearly, the demands are different and the regulations
Printed by William Gibbons clearly thought through as detailed in RCEV27 N8. are too far apart for this to be a certainty and such an
Printed in England
ISSN No 0961-1096 He was also tasked with working with the safety amalgamation of rules seems unlikely, but is clearly on the
USPS No 007-969
department to improve head protection in an open cockpit, table and could benefit both series. It would clearly explain
and the Halo design seems to be the best that could be why the ACO is so against adopting DPi regulations, despite
considered, as an elongated windscreen made drivers feel pressure from Ford and Lamborghini to do so.
sick. It has been an interesting journey on which he has been,
and arguably he was at the heart of the most technically
www.racecar-engineering.com
advanced regulations ever introduced into the sport. His ANDREW COTTON Editor

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98 www.racecar-engineering.com NOVEMBER 2017